org.simmetrics.StringMetric Maven / Gradle / Ivy
/*
* #%L
* Simmetrics Core
* %%
* Copyright (C) 2014 - 2015 Simmetrics Authors
* %%
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
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* #L%
*/
package org.simmetrics;
/**
* Measures the similarity between two strings. The measurement results in a
* value between 0 and 1 (inclusive). A value of zero indicates that the strings
* are dissimilar, a a value of 1 indicates they are similar.
*
* The similarity measure should be consistent with equals such that
* {@code a.equals(b) => compare(a,b) == 1.0}.
*
* The similarity measure should be reflexive such that
* {@code compare(a,a) == 1.0}.
*
* The similarity measure should be symmetric such that
* {@code compare(a,b) == compare(b,a)}.
*
*/
public interface StringMetric extends Metric {
/**
* Measures the similarity between strings a and b. The measurement results
* in a value between 0 and 1 (inclusive). A value of zero indicates that
* the strings are dissimilar, a value of 1 indicates they are similar.
*
* @param a
* string a to compare
* @param b
* string b to compare
* @return a value between 0 and 1 inclusive indicating similarity
* @throws NullPointerException
* when either a or b is null
*/
@Override
public float compare(String a, String b);
}