asked on

Number of characters different between 2 strings

I'm looking for a function (built-in or user) that will spit back the amount of characters as an integer that are different between 2 strings. It must be position and length sensitive, meaning that if there is an "E" at position 2 in string one, and an "E" at position 4 in string two, that is considered different. If either string is longer than the other, then the longer of the 2 strings must consider the "extra" characters as mismatches. It should be case insensitive. This function has to be extremely quick as it's going to be called about 2500 times in a single operation I have.

The output should be as follows (assuming the function name is strDiff):

strDiff("resonate","resonate") 'returns 0 - exact match
strDiff("hello","hi") 'returns 4 - only the first h is a match, the "ello" has 4 characters that are not matched
strDiff("blue","yellow") 'returns 6 - yellow has 6 characters and blue does not have any in the same position
strDiff("horse","pony") 'returns 4 - only the second O is a match
strDiff("james","jimmy") 'returns 3 - the first J and third M characters are matches, 3 characters are not matched
strDiff("swinging","swing") 'returns 3 - "ing" has no match

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Colosseo

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dds110

Here's a variant of the same thing almost.

Function strDiff(str1 As String, str2 As String) As Integer
Dim x As Integer, longString As String
If str1 = str2 Then
strDiff = 0
Exit Function
End If

If str1 <> str2 Then 'get the longest of the two
If Len(str1) > Len(str2) Then
longString = str1
Else
longString = str2
End If
'strDiff = Abs(Len(str1) - Len(str2))

For x = 1 To Len(longString) 'compare the two strings character by character
If Mid(str1, x, 1) <> Mid(str2, x, 1) Then
strDiff = strDiff + 1
End If
Next x
End If
End Function

dds110

Oh yeah, I forgot to take out the commented string

'strDiff = Abs(Len(str1) - Len(str2))

Didn't need it

This better not be homework

PePi

and another variant you can opt for:

Function strDiff(str1 As String, str2 As String) As Long
Dim counter As Long
Dim i As Integer

counter = Abs(Len(str1) - Len(str2))
Select Case (Len(str1) - Len(str2))
Case = 0
For i = 1 To Len(str1)
If Mid(str1, i, 1) <> Mid(str2, i, 1) Then counter = counter + 1
Next i
Case < 0
For i = 1 To Len(str1)
If Mid(str1, i, 1) <> Mid(str2, i, 1) Then counter = counter + 1
Next i
Case > 0
For i = 1 To Len(str2)
If Mid(str1, i, 1) <> Mid(str2, i, 1) Then counter = counter + 1
Next i
End Select
strDiff = counter
End Function

enjoy!

PePi

P.S. you can cut down on another variable by replacing counter with the function name. you won't need the variable counter anymore.

SOLUTION

David Lee

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PePi

absolutely nice & clean!

David Lee

Thanks!

TWCMIL

ASKER

Thanks for all the quick help, I want to give everyone points!

Points to Colloseo for being first, and to BlueDevilFan for having the shortest code.

Thanks again (No it's not homework, it is for some phonetic matching I am doing for our intranet people search site between 2 names converted to double metaphone - we have some funky last names here)