Python SequenceMatcher for finding a similarly-named file

gistfile1.py

"""
Here's a cute example of using Python's builtin difflib support to find a file with the closest matching name
"""
from difflib import SequenceMatcher

# Suppose we have some files (databases here) with a certain naming scheme.
db_files = ['out_NDWFS_1425+3254_J_db.hdf5', 'out_NDWFS_1425+3254_H_db.hdf5']
# Now we have several other files (model definitions here) that have a similar naming scheme
py_files = ['model_NDWFS_1425+3254_J.py', 'model_NDWFS_1425+3254_H.py']
for db_file in db_files:
  # Setup a function that creates a SequenceMatcher against db_file, then returns the similarity ratio
  # Note a= and b= are important, the first argument of SequenceMatcher supplies "junk" characters to ignore 
  similar_score = lambda x: SequenceMatcher(a=db_file, b=x).ratio()
  # Now sort the py_files list using their similarity ratios against db_file as the sort key 
  py_files.sort(key=similar_score)
  # Best-matching filename is now the last element in the sorted array
  model_file = py_files[-1]
  print '{} matches {}'.format(model_file, db_file)