String Module

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This XQuery Module contains functions for string operations and computations.

Conventions

All functions and errors in this module and errors are assigned to the http://basex.org/modules/string namespace, which is statically bound to the string prefix.

Computations

string:levenshtein

Signature
string:levenshtein(
  $string1  as xs:string,
  $string2  as xs:string
) as xs:double
Summary Computes the Damerau-Levenshtein Distance for two strings and returns a double value (0.0 - 1.0). The returned value is computed as follows:
  • 1.0 – distance / max(length of strings)
  • 1.0 is returned if the strings are equal; 0.0 is returned if the strings are too different.
Examples
  • string:levenshtein("flower", "flower") returns 1
  • string:levenshtein("flower", "lewes") returns 0.5
  • In the following query, the input is first normalized (words are stemmed, converted to lower case, and diacritics are removed). It returns 1:
let $norm := ft:normalize(?, map { 'stemming': true() })
return string:levenshtein($norm("HOUSES"), $norm("house"))

string:soundex

Signature
string:soundex(
  $string  as xs:string
) as xs:string
Summary Computes the Soundex value for the specified string. The algorithm can be used to find and index English words with similar pronouncation.
Examples
  • string:soundex("Michael") returns M240
  • string:soundex("OBrien") = string:soundex("O'Brien") returns true

string:cologne-phonetic

Signature
string:cologne-phonetic(
  $string  as xs:string
) as xs:string
Summary Computes the Kölner Phonetik value for the specified string. Similar to Soundex, the algorithm is used to find similarly pronounced words, but for the German language. As the first returned digit can be 0, the value is returned as string.
Examples
  • string:cologne-phonetic("Michael") returns 645
  • every $s in ("Mayr", "Maier", "Meier") satisfies string:cologne-phonetic($s) = "67" returns true

Formatting

string:format

Signature
string:format(
  $pattern    as xs:string,
  $values...  as item()
) as xs:string
Summary Returns a formatted string. The remaining $values are incorported into the $pattern, according to Java’s printf syntax.
Errors format: The specified format is not valid.
Examples
  • string:format("%b", true()) returns true.
  • string:format("%06d", 256) returns 000256.
  • string:format("%e", 1234.5678) returns 1.234568e+03.

string:cr

Signature string:cr() as xs:string
Summary Returns a single carriage return character (
).

string:nl

Signature string:nl() as xs:string
Summary Returns a single newline character (
).

string:tab

Signature string:tab() as xs:string
Summary Returns a single tabulator character (	).

Changelog

Version 10.0

The Module was introduced with Version 8.3. Functions were adopted from the obsolete Utility and Output Modules.