// diff format: array of character numbers out of s used to reconstruct t static int leven(String s, String t) { // degenerate cases if (s.equals(t)) return 0; if (s.length() == 0) return t.length(); if (t.length() == 0) return s.length(); // create two work vectors of integer distances L[] v0 = new ArrayList[t.length() + 1]; L[] v1 = new ArrayList[t.length() + 1]; // initialize v0 (the previous row of distances) // this row is A[0][i]: edit distance for an empty s // the distance is just the number of characters to delete from t for (int i = 0; i < v0.length; i++) v0[i] = i; for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) { // calculate v1 (current row distances) from the previous row v0 // first element of v1 is A[i+1][0] // edit distance is delete (i+1) chars from s to match empty t v1[0] = i + 1; // use formula to fill in the rest of the row for (int j = 0; j < t.length(); j++) { int cost = s.charAt(i) == t.charAt(j) ? 0 : 1; v1[j + 1] = Math.min(Math.min(v1[j] + 1, v0[j + 1] + 1), v0[j] + cost); } // copy v1 (current row) to v0 (previous row) for next iteration /*for (int j = 0; j < v0.length; j++) v0[j] = v1[j];*/ // swap arrays int[] v = v1; v1 = v0; v0 = v; } // for array copying: // return v1[t.length()]; // for array swapping: return v0[t.length()]; }