UTL_MATCH : String Matching by Testing Levels of Similarity/Difference

The UTL_MATCH package was introduced in Oracle 10g Release 2, but first documented (and therefore supported) in Oracle 11g Release 2. It contains a variety of functions that are helpful for testing the level of similarity/difference between strings.

• Setup
• EDIT_DISTANCE
• EDIT_DISTANCE_SIMILARITY
• JARO_WINKLER
• JARO_WINKLER_SIMILARITY

Related articles.

• UTL_MATCH : String Matching

Setup

The examples in this article require the following table definition.

DROP TABLE match_tab;

CREATE TABLE match_tab (
  id   NUMBER,
  col1 VARCHAR2(15),
  col2 VARCHAR2(15),
  CONSTRAINT match_tab_pk PRIMARY  KEY (id)
);

INSERT INTO match_tab VALUES (1, 'Peter Parker', 'Pete Parker');
INSERT INTO match_tab VALUES (2, 'Peter Parker', 'peter parker');
INSERT INTO match_tab VALUES (3, 'Clark Kent', 'Claire Kent');
INSERT INTO match_tab VALUES (4, 'Wonder Woman', 'Ponder Woman');
INSERT INTO match_tab VALUES (5, 'Superman', 'Superman');
INSERT INTO match_tab VALUES (6, 'The Hulk', 'Iron Man');
COMMIT;