Anyone have a canned subroutine that can determine how close a fit one
string is to another?

For example, if one string has one or more caps and the other doesn't

or one string has an "&" and the other has "and"

or one starts with "The" and the other doesn't

or one has a "2" and the other has "II"

etc.

Thanx in advance...

Those hardly constitute close fits, though, do they?

Sorry, I don't have anything like that.

Pete

On Oct 10, 10:52 pm, Elmer Smurdley wrote:
Anyone have a canned subroutine that can determine how close a fit one
string is to another?

For example, if one string has one or more caps and the other doesn't

or one string has an "&" and the other has "and"

or one starts with "The" and the other doesn't

or one has a "2" and the other has "II"

etc.

Thanx in advance...

Anyone have a canned subroutine that can determine how close a fit one
string is to another?

Hi. Not sure if this is what you want, but in Math, one option is the
"Levenshtein distance."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance

So, for example:

EditDistance["Kitten","sitting"]
3

EditDistance["Saturday","Sunday"]
3

EditDistance["Saturday","sunday",IgnoreCase-False]
4

--
Dana DeLouis


"Pete_UK" wrote in message
ups.com...
Those hardly constitute close fits, though, do they?

Sorry, I don't have anything like that.

Pete

On Oct 10, 10:52 pm, Elmer Smurdley wrote:
Anyone have a canned subroutine that can determine how close a fit one
string is to another?

For example, if one string has one or more caps and the other doesn't

or one string has an "&" and the other has "and"

or one starts with "The" and the other doesn't

or one has a "2" and the other has "II"

etc.

Thanx in advance...

There's a vba link at (see #13) he
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Algorit...r_Applications

Haven't tested it though.

--
HTH :)
Dana DeLouis
Windows XP & Excel 2007

Don't know what happened to my earlier post, but this reponse was
right on the money.

Thanks, Dana

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:25:33 -0400, "Dana DeLouis"
wrote:

There's a vba link at (see #13) he
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Algorit...r_Applications

Haven't tested it though.

Thanks for that, Dana - I'd never heard of it before. I wonder how one
would cope with the example the OP gave of one string containing 2 and
the other containing ii (or <spaceii<space)?

Pete

On Oct 11, 12:07 am, "Dana DeLouis" wrote:
Anyone have a canned subroutine that can determine how close a fit one
string is to another?

Hi. Not sure if this is what you want, but in Math, one option is the
"Levenshtein distance."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance

So, for example:

EditDistance["Kitten","sitting"]
3

EditDistance["Saturday","Sunday"]
3

EditDistance["Saturday","sunday",IgnoreCase-False]
4

--
Dana DeLouis

"Pete_UK" wrote in message

ups.com...



Those hardly constitute close fits, though, do they?

Sorry, I don't have anything like that.

Pete

On Oct 10, 10:52 pm, Elmer Smurdley wrote:
Anyone have a canned subroutine that can determine how close a fit one
string is to another?

For example, if one string has one or more caps and the other doesn't

or one string has an "&" and the other has "and"

or one starts with "The" and the other doesn't

or one has a "2" and the other has "II"

etc.

Thanx in advance...- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

...one string containing 2 and the other containing ii.

Hi. Not sure on that one.
Anyway, such algorithms are used in different ways.
One example would be a function that links to a dictionary and uses that
"distance" algorithm as a default.

NearWords = Nearest[DictionaryLookup[__]];
Hence:

NearWords["Excel",10]

{"excel","Axel","Edsel","Ethel","excels","Exocet", "expel","Abel","ace","aced"}

--
Dana DeLouis


"Pete_UK" wrote in message
ups.com...
Thanks for that, Dana - I'd never heard of it before. I wonder how one
would cope with the example the OP gave of one string containing 2 and
the other containing ii (or <spaceii<space)?

Pete

On Oct 11, 12:07 am, "Dana DeLouis" wrote:
Anyone have a canned subroutine that can determine how close a fit one
string is to another?

Hi. Not sure if this is what you want, but in Math, one option is the
"Levenshtein distance."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance

So, for example:

EditDistance["Kitten","sitting"]
3

EditDistance["Saturday","Sunday"]
3

EditDistance["Saturday","sunday",IgnoreCase-False]
4

--
Dana DeLouis

"Pete_UK" wrote in message

ups.com...



Those hardly constitute close fits, though, do they?

Sorry, I don't have anything like that.

Pete

On Oct 10, 10:52 pm, Elmer Smurdley wrote:
Anyone have a canned subroutine that can determine how close a fit one
string is to another?

For example, if one string has one or more caps and the other doesn't

or one string has an "&" and the other has "and"

or one starts with "The" and the other doesn't

or one has a "2" and the other has "II"

etc.

Thanx in advance...- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanx Dana.

Both of the algorithms mentioned are very close to what I need and a
very good starting point to resolving some of the other issues.


On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:32:40 -0400, "Dana DeLouis"
wrote:

...one string containing 2 and the other containing ii.

Hi. Not sure on that one.
Anyway, such algorithms are used in different ways.
One example would be a function that links to a dictionary and uses that
"distance" algorithm as a default.

NearWords = Nearest[DictionaryLookup[__]];
Hence:

NearWords["Excel",10]

{"excel","Axel","Edsel","Ethel","excels","Exocet" ,"expel","Abel","ace","aced"}