# Fuzzy string match regex

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/fuzzy-string-match-regex/649819>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [November 30, 2021, 2:30am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/fuzzy-string-match-regex/649819 "2021-11-30T02:30:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![steve.mills](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/steve.mills/32/14961_2.png) [@steve.mills](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/steve.mills)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 2:30am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/fuzzy-string-match-regex/649819/1 "2021-11-30T02:30:44Z")

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Hey guys,

I’m trying to implement a fuzzy string match regex that will:

- match only whole words not sentences
- accept typos
- accept missing chars

I found a regex that works ok - `/a[^b]*b[^c]*c/gi`  
It matches `'abc', 'a123 b123 c'` and will match regardless of length, word boundary (white space) and chars between, but all chars must be present.

I didn’t want white space and unlimited chars between so I modified it to `/a[^]?b[^]?c/gi`  
It matches `'a1bc'` but not `'a12bc'`

`*` to `?` matches only one random char between.  
`[^a]` to `[^]` matches any char not white space.

The only issue is that all chars must be present to match.

The only way I can see around the issue would be to use 2 regex and split the string every second letter to try to match both.

e.g. search term `'Matching'` would become 2 regex `M_t_h_n_` and `_a_c_i_g`.

The issue with this is that a small search term like `"air"` would match any `i` and word length would have to be exact.

If I went back to `*` instead of `?` even a four letter regex could match any 2 chars in any word.

I’m not really seeing a way around this bar writing some monster badly performant regex.

Does anybody have any out of the box ideas? 😀

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kirupa](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/kirupa/32/11616_2.png) [@kirupa](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kirupa)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 5:26am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/fuzzy-string-match-regex/649819/2 "2021-11-30T05:26:01Z")

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(Slinks away and goes hiding in the back! 🐍)