Find similar filenames

Comparison method

The following comparison methods are available:

SmartMatch
FuzzyMatch
Levenshtein
Ratcliff-Obershelp
MatchDiff
WordMatch
FuzzyPercent
Simil

All comparison methods except WordMatch perform various comparisons and calculations between two filenames to determine their percentage of similarity. The comparison method WordMatch splits the filenames into individual words and calculates the percentage of similarity based on the different words. The case sensitivity of filenames is ignored by all comparison methods.

Similarity

The percentage of similarity determines when two different filenames are classified as duplicates.

Delimiters

Here you can define the delimiters for the comparison method WordMatch by which a filename is split into individual words. For example, the filename aa_bb_cc is decomposed into the words aa, bb and cc by the underscore delimiter (_). The default delimiters are space (" "), comma (","), underscore ("_"), period ("."), semicolon (";") and hyphen ("-"). Any number of delimiters can be specified.

Filename

You can find information on further comparison methods and options that you can use to influence the comparison of filenames here.

Examples

The following are various comparison examples between two filenames to illustrate which comparison method might be suitable for your search for similar filenames.
The duration in the right table column shows the time required for 10,000 comparisons between the two filenames.

1. Example

Different delimiters in a filename

Filename A: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Filename B: Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart

Comparison method	Similarity	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

Different number at the end

Filename A: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 001
Filename B: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 002

Comparison method	Similarity	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

Different number at the beginning

Filename A: 001 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Filename B: 002 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Comparison method	Similarity	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

Additional word at the end

Filename A: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Filename B: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - BACKUP

Comparison method	Similarity	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

Different delimiters between words

Filename A: Wolfgang - Amadeus , Mozart
Filename B: Mozart_Amadeus;Wolfgang

Comparison method	Similarity	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

Different order of words in the filenames

Filename A: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Filename B: Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus

Comparison method	Similarity	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

Filename with spelling mistake

Filename A: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Filename B: Wulfgang Amadues Mazort

Comparison method	Similarity	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

Completely different filenames

Filename A: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Filename B: Ludwig van Beethoven

Comparison method	Similarity	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

Filename written backwards

File A: Beethoven
File B: nevohteeb

Comparison method	Similarity	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