There are two ways to implement a Levenshtein function in MySQL. The first is to create a STORED FUNCTION which operates much like a STORED TRANSACTION, except it has distinct inputs and an output. This is fine for small datasets, but a little slow on anything approaching several thousand rows.
CREATE FUNCTION levenshtein( s1 VARCHAR(255), s2 VARCHAR(255) )
RETURNS INT
DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
DECLARE s1_len, s2_len, i, j, c, c_temp, cost INT;
DECLARE s1_char CHAR;
-- max strlen=255
DECLARE cv0, cv1 VARBINARY(256);
SET s1_len = CHAR_LENGTH(s1), s2_len = CHAR_LENGTH(s2), cv1 = 0x00, j = 1, i = 1, c = 0;
IF s1 = s2 THEN
RETURN 0;
ELSEIF s1_len = 0 THEN
RETURN s2_len;
ELSEIF s2_len = 0 THEN
RETURN s1_len;
ELSE
WHILE j <= s2_len DO
SET cv1 = CONCAT(cv1, UNHEX(HEX(j))), j = j + 1;
END WHILE;
WHILE i <= s1_len DO
SET s1_char = SUBSTRING(s1, i, 1), c = i, cv0 = UNHEX(HEX(i)), j = 1;
WHILE j <= s2_len DO
SET c = c + 1;
IF s1_char = SUBSTRING(s2, j, 1) THEN
SET cost = 0; ELSE SET cost = 1;
END IF;
SET c_temp = CONV(HEX(SUBSTRING(cv1, j, 1)), 16, 10) + cost;
IF c > c_temp THEN SET c = c_temp; END IF;
SET c_temp = CONV(HEX(SUBSTRING(cv1, j+1, 1)), 16, 10) + 1;
IF c > c_temp THEN
SET c = c_temp;
END IF;
SET cv0 = CONCAT(cv0, UNHEX(HEX(c))), j = j + 1;
END WHILE;
SET cv1 = cv0, i = i + 1;
END WHILE;
END IF;
RETURN c;
END//
Store the above code in a .sql file and import it into your database like so:
source /tmp/mysql_udf.sql
The second method is to implement a User Defined Function in C/C++ and link it into MySQL as a shared library (*.so file). This method also uses a STORED FUNCTION to call the library, which means the actual query for this or the first method may be identical (providing the inputs to both functions are the same). You can find out more about this method here: http://samjlevy.com/mysql-levenshtein-and-damerau-levenshtein-udfs/
With either of these methods, your query would be something like:
SELECT term FROM words WHERE levenshtein(term, 'term') < 5;
Also, remember that the 'threshold' value should change in relation to the original word length. It's better to think of it in terms of a percentage value, i.e. half your word = 50%, half of 'term' = 2.
DELIMITER @
before the queries, add your new @ delimiter after entering each query, then change your delimiter back withDELIMITER ;
– Concelebrate