Measure the distance between two strings with Ruby?
Can I measure the distance between two strings with Ruby?
I.e.:
compare('Test', 'est') # Returns 1
compare('Test', 'Tes') # Returns 1
compare('Test', 'Tast') # Returns 1
compare('Test', 'Taste') # Returns 2
compare('Test', 'tazT') # Returns 5
Solution 1:
I found this for you:
def levenshtein_distance(s, t)
m = s.length
n = t.length
return m if n == 0
return n if m == 0
d = Array.new(m+1) {Array.new(n+1)}
(0..m).each {|i| d[i][0] = i}
(0..n).each {|j| d[0][j] = j}
(1..n).each do |j|
(1..m).each do |i|
d[i][j] = if s[i-1] == t[j-1] # adjust index into string
d[i-1][j-1] # no operation required
else
[ d[i-1][j]+1, # deletion
d[i][j-1]+1, # insertion
d[i-1][j-1]+1, # substitution
].min
end
end
end
d[m][n]
end
[ ['fire','water'], ['amazing','horse'], ["bamerindos", "giromba"] ].each do |s,t|
puts "levenshtein_distance('#{s}', '#{t}') = #{levenshtein_distance(s, t)}"
end
That's awesome output: =)
levenshtein_distance('fire', 'water') = 4
levenshtein_distance('amazing', 'horse') = 7
levenshtein_distance('bamerindos', 'giromba') = 9
Source: http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance#Ruby
Solution 2:
Much easier and fast due to native C binding:
gem install levenshtein-ffi
gem install levenshtein
require 'levenshtein'
Levenshtein.normalized_distance string1, string2, threshold
http://rubygems.org/gems/levenshtein http://rubydoc.info/gems/levenshtein/0.2.2/frames
Solution 3:
There is an utility method in Rubygems that actually should be public but it's not, anyway:
require "rubygems/text"
ld = Class.new.extend(Gem::Text).method(:levenshtein_distance)
p ld.call("asd", "sdf") => 2