Compare Strings Javascript Return %of Likely
JavascriptStringAlgorithmComparisonJavascript Problem Overview
I am looking for a JavaScript function that can compare two strings and return the likeliness that they are alike. I have looked at soundex but that's not really great for multi-word strings or non-names. I am looking for a function like:
function compare(strA,strB){
}
compare("Apples","apple") = Some X Percentage.
The function would work with all types of strings, including numbers, multi-word values, and names. Perhaps there's a simple algorithm I could use?
Ultimately none of these served my purpose so I used this:
function compare(c, u) {
var incept = false;
var ca = c.split(",");
u = clean(u);
//ca = correct answer array (Collection of all correct answer)
//caa = a single correct answer word array (collection of words of a single correct answer)
//u = array of user answer words cleaned using custom clean function
for (var z = 0; z < ca.length; z++) {
caa = $.trim(ca[z]).split(" ");
var pc = 0;
for (var x = 0; x < caa.length; x++) {
for (var y = 0; y < u.length; y++) {
if (soundex(u[y]) != null && soundex(caa[x]) != null) {
if (soundex(u[y]) == soundex(caa[x])) {
pc = pc + 1;
}
}
else {
if (u[y].indexOf(caa[x]) > -1) {
pc = pc + 1;
}
}
}
}
if ((pc / caa.length) > 0.5) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
// create object listing the SOUNDEX values for each letter
// -1 indicates that the letter is not coded, but is used for coding
// 0 indicates that the letter is omitted for modern census archives
// but acts like -1 for older census archives
// 1 is for BFPV
// 2 is for CGJKQSXZ
// 3 is for DT
// 4 is for L
// 5 is for MN my home state
// 6 is for R
function makesoundex() {
this.a = -1
this.b = 1
this.c = 2
this.d = 3
this.e = -1
this.f = 1
this.g = 2
this.h = 0
this.i = -1
this.j = 2
this.k = 2
this.l = 4
this.m = 5
this.n = 5
this.o = -1
this.p = 1
this.q = 2
this.r = 6
this.s = 2
this.t = 3
this.u = -1
this.v = 1
this.w = 0
this.x = 2
this.y = -1
this.z = 2
}
var sndx = new makesoundex()
// check to see that the input is valid
function isSurname(name) {
if (name == "" || name == null) {
return false
} else {
for (var i = 0; i < name.length; i++) {
var letter = name.charAt(i)
if (!(letter >= 'a' && letter <= 'z' || letter >= 'A' && letter <= 'Z')) {
return false
}
}
}
return true
}
// Collapse out directly adjacent sounds
// 1. Assume that surname.length>=1
// 2. Assume that surname contains only lowercase letters
function collapse(surname) {
if (surname.length == 1) {
return surname
}
var right = collapse(surname.substring(1, surname.length))
if (sndx[surname.charAt(0)] == sndx[right.charAt(0)]) {
return surname.charAt(0) + right.substring(1, right.length)
}
return surname.charAt(0) + right
}
// Collapse out directly adjacent sounds using the new National Archives method
// 1. Assume that surname.length>=1
// 2. Assume that surname contains only lowercase letters
// 3. H and W are completely ignored
function omit(surname) {
if (surname.length == 1) {
return surname
}
var right = omit(surname.substring(1, surname.length))
if (!sndx[right.charAt(0)]) {
return surname.charAt(0) + right.substring(1, right.length)
}
return surname.charAt(0) + right
}
// Output the coded sequence
function output_sequence(seq) {
var output = seq.charAt(0).toUpperCase() // Retain first letter
output += "-" // Separate letter with a dash
var stage2 = seq.substring(1, seq.length)
var count = 0
for (var i = 0; i < stage2.length && count < 3; i++) {
if (sndx[stage2.charAt(i)] > 0) {
output += sndx[stage2.charAt(i)]
count++
}
}
for (; count < 3; count++) {
output += "0"
}
return output
}
// Compute the SOUNDEX code for the surname
function soundex(value) {
if (!isSurname(value)) {
return null
}
var stage1 = collapse(value.toLowerCase())
//form.result.value=output_sequence(stage1);
var stage1 = omit(value.toLowerCase())
var stage2 = collapse(stage1)
return output_sequence(stage2);
}
function clean(u) {
var u = u.replace(/\,/g, "");
u = u.toLowerCase().split(" ");
var cw = ["ARRAY OF WORDS TO BE EXCLUDED FROM COMPARISON"];
var n = [];
for (var y = 0; y < u.length; y++) {
var test = false;
for (var z = 0; z < cw.length; z++) {
if (u[y] != "" && u[y] != cw[z]) {
test = true;
break;
}
}
if (test) {
//Don't use & or $ in comparison
var val = u[y].replace("$", "").replace("&", "");
n.push(val);
}
}
return n;
}
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
Here's an answer based on Levenshtein distance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance
function similarity(s1, s2) {
var longer = s1;
var shorter = s2;
if (s1.length < s2.length) {
longer = s2;
shorter = s1;
}
var longerLength = longer.length;
if (longerLength == 0) {
return 1.0;
}
return (longerLength - editDistance(longer, shorter)) / parseFloat(longerLength);
}
For calculating edit distance
function editDistance(s1, s2) {
s1 = s1.toLowerCase();
s2 = s2.toLowerCase();
var costs = new Array();
for (var i = 0; i <= s1.length; i++) {
var lastValue = i;
for (var j = 0; j <= s2.length; j++) {
if (i == 0)
costs[j] = j;
else {
if (j > 0) {
var newValue = costs[j - 1];
if (s1.charAt(i - 1) != s2.charAt(j - 1))
newValue = Math.min(Math.min(newValue, lastValue),
costs[j]) + 1;
costs[j - 1] = lastValue;
lastValue = newValue;
}
}
}
if (i > 0)
costs[s2.length] = lastValue;
}
return costs[s2.length];
}
Usage
similarity('Stack Overflow','Stack Ovrflw')
returns 0.8571428571428571
You can play with it below:
function checkSimilarity(){
var str1 = document.getElementById("lhsInput").value;
var str2 = document.getElementById("rhsInput").value;
document.getElementById("output").innerHTML = similarity(str1, str2);
}
function similarity(s1, s2) {
var longer = s1;
var shorter = s2;
if (s1.length < s2.length) {
longer = s2;
shorter = s1;
}
var longerLength = longer.length;
if (longerLength == 0) {
return 1.0;
}
return (longerLength - editDistance(longer, shorter)) / parseFloat(longerLength);
}
function editDistance(s1, s2) {
s1 = s1.toLowerCase();
s2 = s2.toLowerCase();
var costs = new Array();
for (var i = 0; i <= s1.length; i++) {
var lastValue = i;
for (var j = 0; j <= s2.length; j++) {
if (i == 0)
costs[j] = j;
else {
if (j > 0) {
var newValue = costs[j - 1];
if (s1.charAt(i - 1) != s2.charAt(j - 1))
newValue = Math.min(Math.min(newValue, lastValue),
costs[j]) + 1;
costs[j - 1] = lastValue;
lastValue = newValue;
}
}
}
if (i > 0)
costs[s2.length] = lastValue;
}
return costs[s2.length];
}
<div><label for="lhsInput">String 1:</label> <input type="text" id="lhsInput" oninput="checkSimilarity()" /></div>
<div><label for="rhsInput">String 2:</label> <input type="text" id="rhsInput" oninput="checkSimilarity()" /></div>
<div>Match: <span id="output">No Input</span></div>
Solution 2 - Javascript
Using this library for string similarity worked like a charm for me!
Here's the Example -
var similarity = stringSimilarity.compareTwoStrings("Apples","apple"); // => 0.88
Solution 3 - Javascript
Here is a very simple function that does a comparison and returns a percentage based on equivalency. While it has not been tested for all possible scenarios, it may help you get started.
function similar(a,b) {
var equivalency = 0;
var minLength = (a.length > b.length) ? b.length : a.length;
var maxLength = (a.length < b.length) ? b.length : a.length;
for(var i = 0; i < minLength; i++) {
if(a[i] == b[i]) {
equivalency++;
}
}
var weight = equivalency / maxLength;
return (weight * 100) + "%";
}
alert(similar("test","tes")); // 75%
alert(similar("test","test")); // 100%
alert(similar("test","testt")); // 80%
alert(similar("test","tess")); // 75%
Solution 4 - Javascript
To Find degree of similarity between two strings; we can use more than one or two methods but I am mostly inclined towards the usage of 'Dice's Coefficient' . which is better! well in my knowledge than using 'Levenshtein distance'
Using this 'string-similarity' package from npm you will be able to work on what I said above.
some easy usage examples are
var stringSimilarity = require('string-similarity');
var similarity = stringSimilarity.compareTwoStrings('healed', 'sealed');
var matches = stringSimilarity.findBestMatch('healed', ['edward', 'sealed', 'theatre']);
for more please visit the link given above. Thankyou.
Solution 5 - Javascript
Just one I quickly wrote that might be good enough for your purposes:
function Compare(strA,strB){
for(var result = 0, i = strA.length; i--;){
if(typeof strB[i] == 'undefined' || strA[i] == strB[i]);
else if(strA[i].toLowerCase() == strB[i].toLowerCase())
result++;
else
result += 4;
}
return 1 - (result + 4*Math.abs(strA.length - strB.length))/(2*(strA.length+strB.length));
}
This weighs characters that are the same but different case 1 quarter as heavily as characters that are completely different or missing. It returns a number between 0 and 1, 1 meaning the strings are identical. 0 meaning they have no similarities. Examples:
Compare("Apple", "Apple") // 1
Compare("Apples", "Apple") // 0.8181818181818181
Compare("Apples", "apple") // 0.7727272727272727
Compare("a", "A") // 0.75
Compare("Apples", "appppp") // 0.45833333333333337
Compare("a", "b") // 0
Solution 6 - Javascript
How about function similar_text from PHP.js library?
It is based on a PHP function with the same name.
function similar_text (first, second) {
// Calculates the similarity between two strings
// discuss at: http://phpjs.org/functions/similar_text
if (first === null || second === null || typeof first === 'undefined' || typeof second === 'undefined') {
return 0;
}
first += '';
second += '';
var pos1 = 0,
pos2 = 0,
max = 0,
firstLength = first.length,
secondLength = second.length,
p, q, l, sum;
max = 0;
for (p = 0; p < firstLength; p++) {
for (q = 0; q < secondLength; q++) {
for (l = 0;
(p + l < firstLength) && (q + l < secondLength) && (first.charAt(p + l) === second.charAt(q + l)); l++);
if (l > max) {
max = l;
pos1 = p;
pos2 = q;
}
}
}
sum = max;
if (sum) {
if (pos1 && pos2) {
sum += this.similar_text(first.substr(0, pos2), second.substr(0, pos2));
}
if ((pos1 + max < firstLength) && (pos2 + max < secondLength)) {
sum += this.similar_text(first.substr(pos1 + max, firstLength - pos1 - max), second.substr(pos2 + max, secondLength - pos2 - max));
}
}
return sum;
}
Solution 7 - Javascript
fuzzyset - A fuzzy string set for javascript. fuzzyset is a data structure that performs something akin to fulltext search against data to determine likely mispellings and approximate string matching. Note that this is a javascript port of a python library.
Solution 8 - Javascript
To some extent, I like the ideas of Dice's coefficient embedded in the string-similarity module. But I feel that considering the bigrams only and not taking into account their multiplicities is missing some important data. Below is a version that also handles multiplicities, and I think is a simpler implementation overall. I don't try to use their API, offering only a function which compares two strings after some manipulation (removing non-alphanumeric characters, lower-casing everything, and compressing but not removing whitespace), built atop one which compares them without that manipulation. It would be easy enough to wrap this back in their API, but I see little need.
const stringSimilarity = (a, b) =>
_stringSimilarity (prep (a), prep (b))
const _stringSimilarity = (a, b) => {
const bg1 = bigrams (a)
const bg2 = bigrams (b)
const c1 = count (bg1)
const c2 = count (bg2)
const combined = uniq ([... bg1, ... bg2])
.reduce ((t, k) => t + (Math .min (c1 [k] || 0, c2 [k] || 0)), 0)
return 2 * combined / (bg1 .length + bg2 .length)
}
const prep = (str) => // TODO: unicode support?
str .toLowerCase () .replace (/[^\w\s]/g, ' ') .replace (/\s+/g, ' ')
const bigrams = (str) =>
[...str] .slice (0, -1) .map ((c, i) => c + str [i + 1])
const count = (xs) =>
xs .reduce ((a, x) => ((a [x] = (a [x] || 0) + 1), a), {})
const uniq = (xs) =>
[... new Set (xs)]
console .log (stringSimilarity (
'foobar',
'Foobar'
)) //=> 1
console .log (stringSimilarity (
"healed",
"sealed"
))//=> 0.8
console .log (stringSimilarity (
"Olive-green table for sale, in extremely good condition.",
"For sale: table in very good condition, olive green in colour."
)) //=> 0.7787610619469026
console .log (stringSimilarity (
"Olive-green table for sale, in extremely good condition.",
"For sale: green Subaru Impreza, 210,000 miles"
)) //=> 0.38636363636363635
console .log (stringSimilarity (
"Olive-green table for sale, in extremely good condition.",
"Wanted: mountain bike with at least 21 gears."
)) //=> 0.1702127659574468
console .log (stringSimilarity (
"The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.",
"The run in Spun falls munly on the plun.",
)) //=> 0.7560975609756098
console .log (stringSimilarity (
"Fa la la la la, la la la la",
"Fa la la la la, la la",
)) //=> 0.8636363636363636
console .log (stringSimilarity (
"car crash",
"carcrash",
)) //=> 0.8
console .log (stringSimilarity (
"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.",
"Huh?",
)) //=> 0
.as-console-wrapper {max-height: 100% !important; top: 0}
Some of the test cases are from string-similarity, others are my own. They show some significant differences from that package, but nothing untoward. The only one I would call out is the difference between "car crash" and "carcrash", which string-similarity sees as identical and I report with a similarity of 0.8. My version finds more similarity in all the olive-green test-cases than does string-similarity, but as these are in any case fairly arbitrary numbers, I'm not sure how much difference it makes; they certainly position them in the same relative order.
Solution 9 - Javascript
string-similarity lib vs Top answer (by @overloard1234) performance comparation you can find below
Based on @Tushar Walzade's advice to use string-similarity library, you can find, that for example
stringSimilatityLib.findBestMatch('KIA','Kia').bestMatch.rating
will return 0.0
So, looks like better to compare it in lowerCase.
Better base usage (for arrays) :
findBestMatch(str, strArr) {
const lowerCaseArr = strArr.map(element => element.toLowerCase());//creating lower case array
const match = stringSimilatityLib.findBestMatch(str.toLowerCase(), lowerCaseArr).bestMatch; //trying to find bestMatch
if (match.rating > 0) {
const foundIndex = lowerCaseArr.findIndex(x => x === match.target); //finding the index of found best case
return strArr[foundIndex]; //returning initial value from array
}
return null;
},
Performance
Also, i compared top answer here (made by @overloard1234) and string-similarity lib (v4.0.4).
The results you can find here : https://jsbench.me/szkzojoskq/1
Result : string-similarity is ~ twice faster
Just for fun : v2.0 of string-similarity library slower, than latest 4.0.4 about 2.2 times. So update it, if you are still using < 3.0 :)