Fuzzy String Search

I'm creating a search application that needs to have a fuzzy search, much like google. For example, if I type "Californea", I need my program to return"California" after doing a query on my DB for similarity.

If anyone knows of any already existing methods written, I'd appreciate if you could provide a link. If anyone has any suggestions or pseudocode, I'd appreciate those as well.

Ideally, I would like to be able to set the sensitivity. Just not sure where to start.... I already have my search function working properly for exact strings.

Thanks

Post what you have, if you expect us to help. We can't read minds.

right now I'm feeding my query into an array.

Code:

---

        Dim ds As New DataSet
        Dim dt As New DataTable
        Dim dtCompare As New DataTable
        Dim tmpCount As Integer
        Dim tmpI As Integer
        Dim i As Integer

        Dim myAdapter As New MySqlDataAdapter
        Dim myAdapterCompare As New MySqlDataAdapter

        cmdNext.Visible = False
        cmdPrevious.Visible = False

        Arrays()    'sets up the control arrays


        'clear all labels and images
        For i = 0 To 5
            lblTitle(i).Text = ""
            lblAuthor(i).Text = ""
            lblPrice(i).Text = ""
            imgPath(i).ImageLocation = ""
        Next

        Dim strSearch As String = txtSearch.Text

        Select Case (cmbSearchBy.Text)
            Case "Title"
                cmd.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM tblItems WHERE Title LIKE '%" & txtSearch.Text & "%';"
            Case "Author"
                cmd.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM tblItems WHERE Author LIKE '%" & txtSearch.Text & "%';"
            Case "Genre"
                cmd.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM tblItems WHERE Genre LIKE '%" & txtSearch.Text & "%';"
            Case "ISBN"
                cmd.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM tblItems WHERE ISBN LIKE '%" & txtSearch.Text & "%';"
        End Select

        myAdapter.SelectCommand = cmd
        myAdapter.Fill(dt)

        'This is used for the fuzzy search
        Select Case (cmbSearchBy.Text)
            Case "Title"
                cmd.CommandText = "SELECT Title FROM tblItems;"
            Case "Author"
                cmd.CommandText = "SELECT Author FROM tblItems;"
            Case "Genre"
                cmd.CommandText = "SELECT Genre FROM tblItems;"
            Case "ISBN"
                cmd.CommandText = "SELECT ISBN FROM tblItems;"
        End Select

        myAdapter.SelectCommand = cmd
        myAdapter.Fill(dtCompare)

        Dim arrTitles = (From row In dt.AsEnumerable() Select row.Field(Of String)("title")).ToArray()
        Dim arrAuthors = (From row In dt.AsEnumerable() Select row.Field(Of String)("author")).ToArray()
        Dim arrPrices = (From row In dt.AsEnumerable() Select row.Field(Of Decimal)("price")).ToArray()
        Dim arrPaths = (From row In dt.AsEnumerable() Select row.Field(Of String)("imagepath")).ToArray()

        If UBound(arrTitles) > 5 Then
            tmpCount = 0
            For i = tmpI To tmpCount + 5
                lblTitle(i).Text = arrTitles(i)
                lblAuthor(i).Text = arrAuthors(i)
                lblPrice(i).Text = arrPrices(i)
                If File.Exists(arrPaths(i)) Then
                    imgPath(i).ImageLocation = arrPaths(i)
                Else
                    imgPath(i).ImageLocation = "C:\Test\noimage.jpg"
                End If
            Next
            tmpCount = tmpCount + 6
            tmpI = tmpCount
            cmdNext.Visible = True
            cmdPrevious.Visible = True
        ElseIf UBound(arrTitles) <= 5 And UBound(arrTitles) >= 0 Then
            For i = 0 To UBound(arrTitles)
                lblTitle(i).Text = arrTitles(i)
                lblAuthor(i).Text = arrAuthors(i)
                lblPrice(i).Text = arrPrices(i)
                If File.Exists(arrPaths(i)) Then
                    imgPath(i).ImageLocation = arrPaths(i)
                Else
                    imgPath(i).ImageLocation = "C:\Test\noimage.jpg"
                End If
            Next
        ElseIf UBound(arrTitles) = -1 Then
            MsgBox("No results")
        End If

---

What I've begun to do is bring in all of the results that I'd like to compare against into an array. This way I don't have to send out a query every time I want to compare. I'm thinking I can some how give each comparison a score based on how many letters are in the proper position or something and then accepting or rejecting that result based on the final score.

This is in C# :

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/recipe...et_sample.aspx

You can use SOUNDEX function that is built-in SQL. Something like this Select SELECT * FROM tblItems WHERE SOUNDEX(TITLE) = SOUNDEX('Claifornea')

there are good articles

http://www-bisc.cs.berkeley.edu/cs19...mil_INDINs.pdf

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freea...number=4389673