The string.levenstein() function will get you an edit distance between 2 string values.

string.levenstein.js

if (!String.prototype.levenstein) {
  String.prototype.levenstein = (function(string) {
    // source originated from https://gist.github.com/andrei-m/982927#gistcomment-1797205
    var a = this, b = string + "", m = [], i, j, min = Math.min;

    if (!(a && b)) return (b || a).length;

    for (i = 0; i <= b.length; m[i] = [i++]);
    for (j = 0; j <= a.length; m[0][j] = j++);

    for (i = 1; i <= b.length; i++) {
        for (j = 1; j <= a.length; j++) {
            m[i][j] = b.charAt(i - 1) == a.charAt(j - 1) ?
                m[i - 1][j - 1] :
                m[i][j] = min(
                    m[i - 1][j - 1] + 1,
                    min(m[i][j - 1] + 1, m[i - 1 ][j] + 1));
        }
    }

    return m[b.length][a.length];
  });
}

output.log

>> "Hello".levenstein("Hello")
0
>> "Hello".levenstein("Hell")
1
>> "Hello".levenstein("Willow")
3
>> "Hello".levenstein("World")
4