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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation: ThinBASIC Core Language > BuiltIn Functions > String functions > StrDistance |
Description
Levenshtein string distance algorithm (string similarity test)
Levenshtein distance is a measure of the similarity between two strings-
Syntax
n = StrDistance(Str1, Str2 [, CaseSensitive])
Returns
Number
Parameters
Name |
Type |
Optional |
Meaning |
Str1 |
String |
No |
String 1 |
Str2 |
String |
No |
String 1 |
CaseSensitive |
Number |
Yes |
%TRUE or %FALSE if comparison has to consider letter case. Default value is %FALSE. |
Remarks
The distance is the number of deletions, insertions, or substitutions required to transform Str1 into Str2.
For example, If Str1 is "test" and t is "test", then StrDistance(s,t) = 0, because no transformations are needed. The strings are already identical.
If Str1 is "test" and Str2 is "tent", then StrDistance(s,t) = 1, because one substitution (change "s" to "n") is sufficient to transform Str1 into Str2.
The greater the Levenshtein distance, the more different the strings are.
Levenshtein distance name comes from the Russian scientist Vladimir Levenshtein, who devised the algorithm in 1965.
The metric is also sometimes called edit distance.
Restrictions
See also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance
Examples
Uses "Console"
'---Test the StrDistance function
Sub TestStrDistance()
Dim str1 As String = "kitten"
Dim str2 As String = "sitting"
Integer distance = StrDistance(str1, str2)
Printl $("Levenshtein distance between [{str1}] and [{str2}] is: "), distance
End Sub
'---Run the test
TestStrDistance()
WaitKey