PHP levenshtein()
Function
Example
Calculate the Levenshtein distance between two strings:
<?php
echo levenshtein("Hello World", "ello World");
echo "<br>";
echo levenshtein("Hello World", "ello World", 10, 20, 30);
?>
Definition and Usage
The levenshtein()
function returns the Levenshtein distance between two strings.
The Levenshtein distance, also known as edit distance, refers to the minimum number of edit operations required to transform one string into another. Permitted edit operations include replacing a character with another, inserting a character, and deleting a character.
By default, PHP assigns the same weight to each operation (replace, insert, and delete). However, you can define the cost of each operation by setting optional parameters for insert, replace, and delete.
Note: The levenshtein()
function is case-insensitive.
Note: The levenshtein()
function is faster than the similar_text()
function. However, similar_text()
provides more accurate results with fewer required modifications.
Syntax
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
string1 | Required. The first string to compare. |
string2 | Required. The second string to compare. |
insert | Optional. The cost of inserting a character. Default is 1. |
replace | Optional. The cost of replacing a character. Default is 1. |
delete | Optional. The cost of deleting a character. Default is 1. |
Technical Details
Return Value: | Returns the Levenshtein distance between the two argument strings, or -1 if one of the strings exceeds 255 characters. |
---|---|
PHP Version: | 4.0.1+ |
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