Find Similar File Names

Comparison Method

The following comparison methods are available:

SmartMatch
FuzzyMatch
Levenshtein
Ratcliff-Obershelp
MatchDiff
WordMatch
FuzzyPercent
Simil

All comparison methods except WordMatch performing different text comparisons and calculations between the two file names to calculate the perceptual match between them. The comparison method WordMatch splits the file names into separate words and calculates the perceptual match by comparing the words. All comparison methods are case-insensitive, meaning no distinction is made between uppercasing and lowercasing when performing the comparison.

Match

This is the degree of match that must exist between the file names in order to be offered as duplicates.

Delimiter

Here you can specify the delimiter characters for the comparison method WordMatch to split the file names into words. For example the file name "aa_bb_cc" will be split into the word collection "aa", "bb" and "cc" by using the delimiter character underscore ("_"). The standard delimiter characters are space (" "), comma (","), underscore ("_"), dot ("."), semicolon (";") and minus ("-"). You can specify any number of delimiter characters.

File Name

Information on other comparison methods and options with which you can influence the comparison of file names can be found here.

Examples

The following file name comparison examples give you an overview which comparison method could be suitable for your search for similar file names. The duration at the right table column shows the necessary time to perform 10.000 file name comparisons.

1. Example

File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart"

Comparison Method	Match	Duration
FuzzyMatch	88,34%	0,63s
SmartMatch	91,30%	0,75s
Levenshtein	91,30%	1,16s
Ratcliff-Obershelp	82,61%	1,53s
MatchDiff	91,30%	0,09s
WordMatch	100,00%	0,33s
FuzzyPercent	56,58%	0,33s
Simil	83,33%	0,01s

2. Example

File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 001"
File name B: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 002"

Comparison Method	Match	Duration
FuzzyMatch	96,43%	1,41s
SmartMatch	96,55%	1,09s
Levenshtein	96,55%	1,83s
Ratcliff-Obershelp	96,55%	0,22s
MatchDiff	96,55%	0,07s
WordMatch	75,00%	0,50s
FuzzyPercent	98,06%	0,54s
Simil	93,33%	0,01s

3. Example

File name A: "001 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "002 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"

Comparison Method	Match	Duration
FuzzyMatch	96,31%	1,38s
SmartMatch	96,55%	1,00s
Levenshtein	96,55%	1,81s
Ratcliff-Obershelp	96,55%	0,60s
MatchDiff	96,55%	0,07s
WordMatch	75,00%	0,42s
FuzzyPercent	71,84%	0,49s
Simil	93,33%	0,01s

4. Example

File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - BACKUP"

Comparison Method	Match	Duration
FuzzyMatch	70,97%	1,93s
SmartMatch	83,64%	0,83s
Levenshtein	71,88%	1,59s
Ratcliff-Obershelp	83,64%	0,15s
MatchDiff	71,88%	0,05s
WordMatch	75,00%	0,39s
FuzzyPercent	77,95%	0,91s
Simil	78,57%	0,01s

5. Example

File name A: "Wolfgang - Amadeus , Mozart"
File name B: "Mozart_Amadeus;Wolfgang"

Comparison Method	Match	Duration
FuzzyMatch	49,29%	0,42s
SmartMatch	32,00%	0,53s
Levenshtein	37,04%	1,43s
Ratcliff-Obershelp	32,00%	1,88s
MatchDiff	29,63%	0,30s
WordMatch	100,00%	0,36s
FuzzyPercent	26,32%	0,38s
Simil	23,08%	0,02s

6. Example

File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus"

Comparison Method	Match	Duration
FuzzyMatch	70,55%	0,65s
SmartMatch	69,57%	0,56s
Levenshtein	39,13%	1,20s
Ratcliff-Obershelp	69,57%	0,40s
MatchDiff	69,57%	0,17s
WordMatch	100,00%	0,34s
FuzzyPercent	57,89%	0,37s
Simil	0,00%	0,01s

7. Example

File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "Wulfgang Amadues Mazort"

Comparison Method	Match	Duration
FuzzyMatch	88,54%	0,86s
SmartMatch	82,61%	0,66s
Levenshtein	78,26%	1,23s
Ratcliff-Obershelp	73,91%	1,30s
MatchDiff	82,61%	0,26s
WordMatch	0,00%	0,33s
FuzzyPercent	36,84%	0,33s
Simil	58,33%	0,02s

8. Example

File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "Ludwig van Beethoven"

Comparison Method	Match	Duration
FuzzyMatch	37,15%	1,07s
SmartMatch	32,56%	0,75s
Levenshtein	21,74%	1,13s
Ratcliff-Obershelp	27,91%	3,68s
MatchDiff	21,74%	0,61s
WordMatch	0,00%	0,30s
FuzzyPercent	5,26%	0,29s
Simil	0,00%	0,01s

9. Example

File name A: "Beethoven"
File name B: "nevohteeb"

Comparison Method	Match	Duration
FuzzyMatch	72,22%	0,21s
SmartMatch	22,22%	0,14s
Levenshtein	33,33%	0,25s
Ratcliff	22,22%	0,34s
MatchDiff	22,22%	0,14s
WordMatch	0,00%	0,15s
FuzzyPercent	8,70%	0,12s
Simil	0,00%	0,01s