Package com.swabunga.spell.engine
Class EditDistance
java.lang.Object
com.swabunga.spell.engine.EditDistance
This class is based on Levenshtein Distance algorithms, and it calculates how similar two words are.
If the words are identical, then the distance is 0. The more that the words have in common, the lower the distance value.
The distance value is based on how many operations it takes to get from one word to the other. Possible operations are
swapping characters, adding a character, deleting a character, and substituting a character.
The resulting distance is the sum of these operations weighted by their cost, which can be set in the Configuration object.
When there are multiple ways to convert one word into the other, the lowest cost distance is returned.
Another way to think about this: what are the cheapest operations that would have to be done on the "original" word to end up with the "similar" word? Each operation has a cost, and these are added up to get the distance.
Another way to think about this: what are the cheapest operations that would have to be done on the "original" word to end up with the "similar" word? Each operation has a cost, and these are added up to get the distance.
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Field Summary
FieldsModifier and TypeFieldDescriptionstatic Configuration
Fetches the spell engine configuration properties. -
Constructor Summary
Constructors -
Method Summary
Modifier and TypeMethodDescriptionstatic final int
getDistance
(String word, String similar) Evaluates the distance between two words.static final int
getDistance
(String word, String similar, int[][] matrix) Evaluates the distance between two words.static void
For testing edit distances
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Field Details
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config
Fetches the spell engine configuration properties.
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Constructor Details
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EditDistance
public EditDistance()
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Method Details
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getDistance
Evaluates the distance between two words.- Parameters:
word
- One word to evaluatessimilar
- The other word to evaluates- Returns:
- a number representing how easy or complex it is to transform on word into a similar one.
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getDistance
Evaluates the distance between two words.- Parameters:
word
- One word to evaluatessimilar
- The other word to evaluates- Returns:
- a number representing how easy or complex it is to transform on word into a similar one.
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main
For testing edit distances- Parameters:
args
- an array of two strings we want to evaluate their distances.- Throws:
Exception
- when problems occurs during reading args.
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