close-enough

String comparison allowing for arbitrary differences.

Install

$ npm install --save close-enough

Usage

const closeEnough = require('close-enough');

// Create a comparator instance
const ce = closeEnough();

// Basic string comparison
ce.compare('Hello World', 'hello world'); // true - case insensitive
ce.compare('abc def', 'def abc'); // true - word order doesn't matter
ce.compare('café', 'cafe'); // true - diacritical marks are ignored

// Different strings
ce.compare('abc def', 'abc xyz'); // false

// Separators and spacing are normalized
ce.compare('hello-world', 'hello world'); // true
ce.compare('hello/world', 'hello_world'); // true
ce.compare('hello   world', 'hello world'); // true

// Extra words are ignored (shorter string must be subset of longer)
ce.compare('abc def', 'abc zzz def'); // true
ce.compare('abc def ghi', 'abc def'); // true

// Get similarity score (0 = identical, higher = more different)
ce.score('hello world', 'hello world'); // 0
ce.score('hello world', 'hello earth'); // 0.5

Advanced Usage

Filtering Generic Words

Remove common words that should be ignored during comparison:

const ce = closeEnough().generics(['hotel', 'inn', 'suites']);

ce.compare('Holiday Inn Hotel', 'Holiday Suites'); // true

Using Synonyms

Define words that should be treated as equivalent:

const ce = closeEnough().synonyms({
  'street': 'st',
  'avenue': 'ave',
  'road': 'rd'
});

ce.compare('Main Street', 'Main St'); // true
ce.compare('Park Avenue', 'Park Ave'); // true

Chaining Configuration

You can chain multiple configuration methods:

const ce = closeEnough()
  .generics(['hotel', 'inn', 'resort'])
  .synonyms({
    'street': 'st',
    'avenue': 'ave'
  });

ce.compare('Grand Hotel on Main Street', 'Grand Inn on Main St'); // true

API

• compare(a, b) - Returns true if strings are considered close enough, false otherwise
• score(a, b) - Returns a numeric score indicating difference (0 = identical)
• generics(array) - Configure generic words to ignore during comparison
• synonyms(object) - Configure word synonyms for comparison

License

MIT © Damian Krzeminski