defmodule Leven do @moduledoc """ Compute the Levenshtein distance between two strings. The Levenshtein distance, also known as edit distance, measures the difference between two strings in terms of the minimum number of single-character edits (insertions, deletions, or substitutions) required to change one string into the other. """ @doc """ Returns the Levenshtein distance between two strings. """ @spec distance(String.t(), String.t()) :: integer() def distance(source, target) when source == target, do: 0 def distance("", target), do: String.length(target) def distance(source, ""), do: String.length(source) def distance(source, target) do source = String.graphemes(source) target = String.graphemes(target) source_len = length(source) target_len = length(target) matrix = build_matrix(source_len, target_len, source, target) get_distance(matrix, source_len, target_len) end defp build_matrix(source_len, target_len, source, target) do for j <- 1..target_len, i <- 1..source_len, reduce: %{{0, 0} => 0} do acc -> source_char = Enum.at(source, i - 1) target_char = Enum.at(target, j - 1) acc |> Map.put({i, 0}, i) |> Map.put({0, j}, j) |> calculate_new_cell(i, j, source_char, target_char) end end defp calculate_new_cell(acc, i, j, source_char, target_char) do sub_cost = case source_char == target_char do true -> 0 false -> 1 end delete = Map.get(acc, {i - 1, j}) |> Kernel.+(1) insert = Map.get(acc, {i, j - 1}) |> Kernel.+(1) sub = Map.get(acc, {i - 1, j - 1}) |> Kernel.+(sub_cost) min = Enum.min([delete, insert, sub]) Map.put(acc, {i, j}, min) end defp get_distance(matrix, source_len, target_len) do Map.get(matrix, {source_len, target_len}) end end