[LANG-1269] Wrong name or result of StringUtils::getJaroWinklerDistance

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Won't Fix
• Affects Version/s: 3.3, 3.4, 3.5
• Assignee: Pascal Schumacher
• Reporter: Jan Martin Keil
• Created: 21/Sep/16 10:19
• Updated: 19/Mar/17 13:28
• Resolved: 19/Mar/17 13:28

Description

The name of the method StringUtils::getJaroWinklerDistance is misleading.
Currently for equal strings 1 is returned, for completely different strings 0 is returned. That is a measure of similarity, not of a distance. A distance must be 0 for equal strings. I read on the issues LANG-591 and LANG-944, that it was decided to have a similar name to StringUtils::getLevenshteinDistance, but that requires also the change of the methods result.

Could you please (1) rename the method to StringUtils::getJaroWinklerSimilarity or (2) change the method to return 1 - currentResult?

First option has the disadvantage to lose the similar naming of the similar methods, second option implies the risk to unnoticed introduce bugs in depending code. So I think it is preferable to use the first option.

Issue Links

• is related to: TEXT-21 Have a clear distinction between Edit Distance, String Similarity, Score, Metric, etc
• supercedes: TEXT-9 Incorporate String algorithms from Commons Lang
• links to: GitHub Pull Request #198