The levenshtein Function
The levenshtein function takes two strings and returns a number - the Levenshtein distance between them. The smaller this number, the more similar the strings are. The first parameter is the first string, the second parameter is the second string. Additional parameters can also be specified to configure the cost of operations.
Syntax
levenshtein(string1, string2, [cost_ins], [cost_rep], [cost_del]);
Example
Let's compare two similar strings:
<?php
echo levenshtein('kitten', 'sitting');
?>
The result of executing the code:
3
Example
Let's compare two completely different strings:
<?php
echo levenshtein('hello', 'world');
?>
The result of executing the code:
4
Example
Using custom operation costs:
<?php
echo levenshtein('test', 'text', 1, 2, 1);
?>
The result of executing the code:
2
See Also
-
the
similar_textfunction,
which calculates the similarity degree of two strings -
the
soundexfunction,
which calculates the soundex key of a string
