Find nearest-matching string from a set

Computes shortest distance between a key string and a set of strings to find the nearest match.
1.4K Downloads
Updated 19 Aug 2013

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Uses a modified Vagner-Fischer algorithm to find the Levenshtein distance between each pair of strings. Progressively narrows the threshold to equal the distance of the best match found so far, reducing run time.

Updated to correct the algorithm. (sorry!)

Optional behaviors include an upper-bound threshold distance, detect first or multiple matches of equal distance, case insensitivity.

Examples:

>> [i,d]=strnearest({'first string'},{'string 2','abcdefgh','FURSrtd','firststring'})

i =

[4]

d =

2

>> [i,d]=strnearest({'1','first string'},{'string 2','abcdefgh','1st string','FURSrtd','seconaaad string','2'})

i =

[6] [3]

d =

1 5

>>

Cite As

Brandon Kuczenski (2024). Find nearest-matching string from a set (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/36981-find-nearest-matching-string-from-a-set), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R2011b
Compatible with any release
Platform Compatibility
Windows macOS Linux
Categories
Find more on Characters and Strings in Help Center and MATLAB Answers
Acknowledgements

Inspired by: Calculation of distance between strings

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Version Published Release Notes
1.2.0.0

Updated to correct an error in the code and to add working examples to the description.

1.1.0.0

Add link to strdist.m

1.0.0.0