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Last active September 8, 2023 00:13
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Damerau-Levenshtein edit distance calculator in Python. Based on pseudocode from Wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damerau-Levenshtein_distance>
# Damerau-Levenshtein edit distance implementation
# Based on pseudocode from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damerau-Levenshtein_distance
def damerau_levenshtein_distance(a, b):
# "Infinity" -- greater than maximum possible edit distance
# Used to prevent transpositions for first characters
INF = len(a) + len(b)
# Matrix: (M + 2) x (N + 2)
matrix = [[INF for n in xrange(len(b) + 2)]]
matrix += [[INF] + range(len(b) + 1)]
matrix += [[INF, m] + [0] * len(b) for m in xrange(1, len(a) + 1)]
# Holds last row each element was encountered: `DA` in the Wikipedia pseudocode
last_row = {}
# Fill in costs
for row in xrange(1, len(a) + 1):
# Current character in `a`
ch_a = a[row-1]
# Column of last match on this row: `DB` in pseudocode
last_match_col = 0
for col in xrange(1, len(b) + 1):
# Current character in `b`
ch_b = b[col-1]
# Last row with matching character; `i1` in pseudocode
last_matching_row = last_row.get(ch_b, 0)
# Cost of substitution
cost = 0 if ch_a == ch_b else 1
# Compute substring distance
matrix[row+1][col+1] = min(
matrix[row][col] + cost, # Substitution
matrix[row+1][col] + 1, # Addition
matrix[row][col+1] + 1, # Deletion
# Transposition
matrix[last_matching_row][last_match_col]
+ (row - last_matching_row - 1) + 1
+ (col - last_match_col - 1))
# If there was a match, update last_match_col
# Doing this here lets me be rid of the `j1` variable from the original pseudocode
if cost == 0:
last_match_col = col
# Update last row for current character
last_row[ch_a] = row
# Return last element
return matrix[-1][-1]
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