# Interface EditDistance<R>

Type Parameters:
  `R` - The type of similarity score unit used by this EditDistance.

All Superinterfaces:
  `BiFunction<CharSequence, CharSequence, R>, ObjectSimilarityScore<CharSequence, R>, SimilarityScore<R>`

All Known Implementing Classes:
  `CosineDistance, DamerauLevenshteinDistance, HammingDistance, JaccardDistance, JaroWinklerDistance, LevenshteinDetailedDistance, LevenshteinDistance, LongestCommonSubsequenceDistance`

public interface EditDistance<R> extends SimilarityScore<R>
Interface for Edit Distances.

An edit distance is a formal metric on the Kleene closure (`X<sup>*</sup>`) over an alphabet (`X`). Note, that a metric on a set `S` is a function `d: [S * S] -&gt; [0, INFINITY)` such that the following hold for `x,y,z` in the set `S`:

- `d(x,y) &gt;= 0`, non-negativity or separation axiom
- `d(x,y) == 0`, if and only if, `x == y`
- `d(x,y) == d(y,x)`, symmetry, and
- `d(x,z) &lt;= d(x,y) + d(y,z)`, the triangle inequality

This is a BiFunction<CharSequence, CharSequence, R>. The `apply` method accepts a pair of `CharSequence` parameters and returns an `R` type similarity score.

Since:
  1.0

- ## Method Summary

  ### Methods inherited from interface BiFunction

  `andThen`

  ### Methods inherited from interface SimilarityScore

  `apply`