Measure the difference between two strings using the Levenshtein distance algorithm

npm install leven

import leven from 'leven';

leven('cat', 'cow');
//=> 2

Type: string

First string.

Type: string

Second string.

Type: object

Type: number

Maximum distance to calculate.

If the actual distance exceeds this value, the function will return maxDistance instead of the actual distance. This can significantly improve performance when you only care about matches within a certain threshold.

import leven from 'leven';

leven('abcdef', '123456', {maxDistance: 3});
//=> 3

leven('cat', 'cow', {maxDistance: 5});
//=> 2

Find the closest matching string from an array of candidates.

Type: string

The string to find matches for.

Type: string[]

Array of candidate strings to search through.

Type: object

Same options as leven().

Type: number

Maximum distance to consider. Candidates with a distance greater than this value will be ignored.

Returns the closest matching string from candidates, or undefined if no candidates are provided or if no match is found within maxDistance.

import {closestMatch} from 'leven';

closestMatch('kitten', ['sitting', 'kitchen', 'mittens']);
//=> 'kitchen'

closestMatch('hello', ['jello', 'yellow', 'bellow'], {maxDistance: 2});
//=> 'jello'

// No match within distance threshold
closestMatch('abcdef', ['123456', '1234567890'], {maxDistance: 2});
//=> undefined

• leven-cli - CLI for this module