levenshtein function

Applies to: check marked yes Databricks SQL check marked yes Databricks Runtime

Returns the Levenshtein distance between the strings str1 and str2.

Syntax 

levenshtein(str1, str2 [, maxDistance])

Arguments

  • str1: A STRING expression.

  • str2: A STRING expression.

  • maxDistance: An optional INTEGER expression limiting the maximum Levenshtein distance considered. The default is unlimited.

    Applies to: check marked yes Databricks SQL check marked yes Databricks Runtime 13.3 LTS and later

Returns

An INTEGER. If maxDistance is less than the distance between the two strings the function returns -1. If maxDistance is negative the function returns -1.

Examples 

> SELECT levenshtein('kitten', 'sitting');
 3

> SELECT levenshtein('kitten', 'sitting', 2);
 -1

> SELECT levenshtein('kitten', 'sitting', 4);
 3