Solved it this way by combining my custom function with a premade Levenshtein function from this link: How to calculate distance similarity measure of given 2 strings? . I assign a score for each single word that appears in the other wordcomplex. then I add a score based on the Levenshtein comparison of each word to another. works great:
Public Class Form1
Private Sub TextBox1_KeyUp(sender As Object, e As KeyEventArgs) Handles TextBox1.KeyUp
calc()
End Sub
Private Sub TextBox2_KeyUp(sender As Object, e As KeyEventArgs) Handles TextBox2.KeyUp
calc()
End Sub
Sub calc()
Label1.Text = compare(TextBox1.Text, TextBox2.Text)
End Sub
Public Function compare(source As String, target As String) As Integer
Dim score As Double
Dim sourcewords As String() = source.Split(New Char() {" "c, "'"c, "`"c, "´"c})
Dim targetwords As String() = target.Split(New Char() {" "c, "'"c, "`"c, "´"c})
For Each s In sourcewords
If target.Contains(s) Then score = score + 1
For Each t In targetwords
score = score + 1 / (DamerauLevenshteinDistance(s, t, 100) + 1)
Next
Next
For Each s In targetwords
If source.Contains(s) Then score = score + 1
For Each t In sourcewords
score = score + 1 / (DamerauLevenshteinDistance(s, t, 100) + 1)
Next
Next
Return score
End Function
''' <summary>
''' Computes the Damerau-Levenshtein Distance between two strings, represented as arrays of
''' integers, where each integer represents the code point of a character in the source string.
''' Includes an optional threshhold which can be used to indicate the maximum allowable distance.
''' </summary>
''' <param name="source">An array of the code points of the first string</param>
''' <param name="target">An array of the code points of the second string</param>
''' <param name="threshold">Maximum allowable distance</param>
''' <returns>Int.MaxValue if threshhold exceeded; otherwise the Damerau-Leveshteim distance between the strings</returns>
Public Shared Function DamerauLevenshteinDistance(source As String, target As String, threshold As Integer) As Integer
Dim length1 As Integer = source.Length
Dim length2 As Integer = target.Length
' Return trivial case - difference in string lengths exceeds threshhold
If Math.Abs(length1 - length2) > threshold Then
Return Integer.MaxValue
End If
' Ensure arrays [i] / length1 use shorter length
If length1 > length2 Then
Swap(target, source)
Swap(length1, length2)
End If
Dim maxi As Integer = length1
Dim maxj As Integer = length2
Dim dCurrent As Integer() = New Integer(maxi) {}
Dim dMinus1 As Integer() = New Integer(maxi) {}
Dim dMinus2 As Integer() = New Integer(maxi) {}
Dim dSwap As Integer()
For i As Integer = 0 To maxi
dCurrent(i) = i
Next
Dim jm1 As Integer = 0, im1 As Integer = 0, im2 As Integer = -1
For j As Integer = 1 To maxj
' Rotate
dSwap = dMinus2
dMinus2 = dMinus1
dMinus1 = dCurrent
dCurrent = dSwap
' Initialize
Dim minDistance As Integer = Integer.MaxValue
dCurrent(0) = j
im1 = 0
im2 = -1
For i As Integer = 1 To maxi
Dim cost As Integer = If(source(im1) = target(jm1), 0, 1)
Dim del As Integer = dCurrent(im1) + 1
Dim ins As Integer = dMinus1(i) + 1
Dim [sub] As Integer = dMinus1(im1) + cost
'Fastest execution for min value of 3 integers
Dim min As Integer = If((del > ins), (If(ins > [sub], [sub], ins)), (If(del > [sub], [sub], del)))
If i > 1 AndAlso j > 1 AndAlso source(im2) = target(jm1) AndAlso source(im1) = target(j - 2) Then
min = Math.Min(min, dMinus2(im2) + cost)
End If
dCurrent(i) = min
If min < minDistance Then
minDistance = min
End If
im1 += 1
im2 += 1
Next
jm1 += 1
If minDistance > threshold Then
Return Integer.MaxValue - 1
End If
Next
Dim result As Integer = dCurrent(maxi)
Return If((result > threshold), Integer.MaxValue, result)
End Function
Private Shared Sub Swap(Of T)(ByRef arg1 As T, ByRef arg2 As T)
Dim temp As T = arg1
arg1 = arg2
arg2 = temp
End Sub
End Class
