com.wcohen.ss
Class MultiStringDistance

java.lang.Object
  com.wcohen.ss.MultiStringDistance

All Implemented Interfaces:

StringDistance

Direct Known Subclasses:

MultiStringAvgDistance

public abstract class MultiStringDistance
extends java.lang.Object
implements StringDistance

Abstract class StringDistance defined over Strings that are broken into fields. This could actually be used in several ways:

1. To merge together scores from a single StringDistance d applied to several different subfields f1,.., fk of a string.
2. To merge together scores from a multiple StringDistances d1, ..., dk, where di applied to the corresponding fi.

3. With a little extra coding, this could also be used to merge together scores from a multiple StringDistances applied a single string. This would require using a new MultiStringWrapper constructor that makes k copies of a single string, rather than splitting a string into k disjoint parts.

Constructor Summary

MultiStringDistance(java.lang.String delim)

Method Summary

protected MultiStringWrapper	asMultiStringWrapper(StringWrapper w) Lazily prepare a string.
protected static void	doMain(StringDistance d, java.lang.String[] argv) Default main routine for testing
java.lang.String	explainScore(java.lang.String s, java.lang.String t) Scores are explained by converting Strings to StringWrappers with the prepare function.
java.lang.String	explainScore(StringWrapper s, StringWrapper t) Explain how the distance was computed.
protected abstract java.lang.String	explainScoreCombination(double[] multiScore) Explain how to combine the scores for each primitive distance function on each field.
protected abstract StringDistance	getDistance(int i) Get the distance used for the i-th pair of fields
protected boolean	isLegalMultiStringWrapperSize(int n) Check if a string has a valid number of fields.
StringWrapper	prepare(java.lang.String s) Prepare a string.
double	score(java.lang.String s, java.lang.String t) Strings are scored by converting them to StringWrappers with the prepare function.
double	score(StringWrapper s, StringWrapper t) Find the distance between s and t.
protected abstract double	scoreCombination(double[] multiScore) Combine the scores for each primitive distance function on each field.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

MultiStringDistance

public MultiStringDistance(java.lang.String delim)

Method Detail

score

public final double score(StringWrapper s,
                          StringWrapper t)

Description copied from interface: StringDistance

Find the distance between s and t. Larger values indicate more similar strings.

Specified by:

score in interface StringDistance

scoreCombination

protected abstract double scoreCombination(double[] multiScore)

Combine the scores for each primitive distance function on each field.

explainScore

public final java.lang.String explainScore(StringWrapper s,
                                           StringWrapper t)

Description copied from interface: StringDistance

Explain how the distance was computed.

Specified by:

explainScore in interface StringDistance

explainScoreCombination

protected abstract java.lang.String explainScoreCombination(double[] multiScore)

Explain how to combine the scores for each primitive distance function on each field.

score

public final double score(java.lang.String s,
                          java.lang.String t)

Strings are scored by converting them to StringWrappers with the prepare function.

Specified by:

score in interface StringDistance

explainScore

public final java.lang.String explainScore(java.lang.String s,
                                           java.lang.String t)

Scores are explained by converting Strings to StringWrappers with the prepare function.

Specified by:

explainScore in interface StringDistance

prepare

public final StringWrapper prepare(java.lang.String s)

Prepare a string.

Specified by:

prepare in interface StringDistance

asMultiStringWrapper

protected MultiStringWrapper asMultiStringWrapper(StringWrapper w)

Lazily prepare a string. Ie, if it's already a MultiStringWrapper, do nothing, otherwise use prepare() to convert to a MultiStringWrapper.

getDistance

protected abstract StringDistance getDistance(int i)

Get the distance used for the i-th pair of fields

isLegalMultiStringWrapperSize

protected boolean isLegalMultiStringWrapperSize(int n)

Check if a string has a valid number of fields. Override this method if some assumption is made about the number of fields.

doMain

protected static final void doMain(StringDistance d,
                                   java.lang.String[] argv)

Default main routine for testing