How to match similar strings in javascript

Question

I have to arrays that contain names of premier league players. I want to match them by name since the player objects don't have unique ids.

How can I make a string comparison that will match Zlatan Ibrahimovic with Zlatan Ibrahimović for example? (notice the last character of both strings)

but therefore I would have to know each representation of one letter in the other name, right? — ManuKaracho
– ManuKaracho, Commented Sep 26, 2016 at 20:19
You would have to know that a "c" with an accent mark is "equivalent" to a "c" without one. But there's no way for the computer to know that without you telling it. — Mike Cluck
– Mike Cluck, Commented Sep 26, 2016 at 20:20

Raúl Martín · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-26 20:23:38Z

1

It is not a trivial problem. You should look into Levenshtein distance problem

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

You can search in google for different implementations or use a library like: https://www.npmjs.com/package/levenshtein

Example:

l = new Levenshtein( 'Zlatan Ibrahimovic', 'Zlatan Ibrahimović')
// l === 1

I used already, and I liked. In my code, I used this one for an experimental proposed.

I don;t care about the result. Because in a long string 4 can be a very good number and in small one 2 it is very bad.

I get to do something like l/Math.max(str1.length, str2.length) then you can make your number and decide wich number is interesting for you.

answered Sep 26, 2016 at 20:23

Raúl Martín

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1 Comment

Mike Cluck Over a year ago

The Levenshtein distance is used for calculating the minimal number of edits to make two strings equivalent, right? I don't think that's what OP is trying to accomplish. Just using the Levenshtein distance and a threshold of 2, Zlatan and Klatap would match.

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