js-levenshtein

What is js-levenshtein?

The js-levenshtein npm package is used to calculate the Levenshtein distance between two strings. The Levenshtein distance is a measure of the difference between two sequences, which is the minimum number of single-character edits (insertions, deletions, or substitutions) required to change one word into the other.

What are js-levenshtein's main functionalities?

Calculate Levenshtein distance

This feature allows you to calculate the Levenshtein distance between two strings. In the code sample, the distance between 'kitten' and 'sitting' is calculated, which is 3.

const levenshtein = require('js-levenshtein');
let distance = levenshtein('kitten', 'sitting');
console.log(distance); // Output: 3

Other packages similar to js-levenshtein

fast-levenshtein

This package provides a fast implementation of the Levenshtein algorithm. It is optimized for speed and is often faster than js-levenshtein, especially for longer strings.

levenshtein-edit-distance

This is another package that calculates the Levenshtein distance. It has a simple API and is also quite performant, but it may not be as optimized for speed as fast-levenshtein.

natural

Natural is a general natural language facility for Node.js. It includes a Levenshtein distance function as part of its broader set of language processing tools, which makes it more versatile than js-levenshtein if you need additional natural language processing features.

README

js-levenshtein

The most efficient JS implementation calculating the Levenshtein distance, i.e. the difference between two strings.

Based on Wagner-Fischer dynamic programming algorithm, optimized for speed and memory

• use a single distance vector instead of a matrix
• loop unrolling on the outer loop
• remove common prefixes/postfixes from the calculation
• minimize the number of comparisons

Install

$ npm install --save js-levenshtein

Usage

const levenshtein = require('js-levenshtein');

levenshtein('kitten', 'sitting');
//=> 3

Benchmark

$ npm run bench
  
                      50 paragraphs, length max=500 min=240 avr=372.5
             126 op/s » js-levenshtein
              88 op/s » talisman
              80 op/s » leven
              74 op/s » levenshtein-edit-distance
              59 op/s » fast-levenshtein
              27 op/s » levenshtein-component
              13 op/s » levdist
              11 op/s » ld
               8 op/s » natural
               8 op/s » levenshtein
  
                      100 sentences, length max=170 min=6 avr=57.5
           2,520 op/s » js-levenshtein
           1,804 op/s » talisman
           1,498 op/s » leven
           1,543 op/s » levenshtein-edit-distance
           1,209 op/s » fast-levenshtein
             539 op/s » levenshtein-component
             249 op/s » levdist
             244 op/s » ld
             146 op/s » natural
             144 op/s » levenshtein
  
                      2000 words, length max=20 min=3 avr=9.5
           2,906 op/s » js-levenshtein
           2,314 op/s » talisman
           1,938 op/s » leven
           2,026 op/s » levenshtein-edit-distance
           1,937 op/s » fast-levenshtein
             851 op/s » levenshtein-component
             415 op/s » levdist
             433 op/s » ld
             207 op/s » natural
             207 op/s » levenshtein

This implementation is 43, 39 and 25 percent faster respectively than the runner up talisman

Benchmarks was performed with node v8.1.2 on a MacBook pro 15", 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7

License

MIT © Gustaf Andersson