Comparison between two similar strings

[Matt]

Hi,

I have two arrays of name and I would like to check if some of the
names are present in both of the arrays.
But the names can be mispelled, or differently entered in the two
arrays, for example:

-Alberto Parreira , albeerto parteira
-alberto parreira , alberto juan fernandez parreira
-alberto-juan parreira , alberto juuan parreira

Do you have an idea of a function that could tell me: those two
strings represents (at for example 80% sure) the same person ?

Cheers

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

http://www.merriampark.com/ld.htm

Levenshtein Distance Algorithm. Link has sample code in VB.

Soundex is another approach.

Your second example would be difficult to call the same I would guess.

http://www.levenshtein.net/levenshtein_links.htm