Free Tool

LCS Edit Distance

Edit distance based on the Longest Common Subsequence — counts only insertions and deletions, making it useful for comparing sequences where order matters.

Tilores uses LCS edit distance in production — so you can automate matching with rules you configure.

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Try it yourself

String A

String B

Edit Distance

No match

How it works

LCS Edit Distance computes the minimum number of insertions and deletions needed to transform one string into another, based on their Longest Common Subsequence (LCS). Unlike Levenshtein, substitution is not a single operation — it counts as a deletion plus an insertion. This makes LCS Edit Distance more sensitive to structural differences and particularly useful when comparing sequences where character identity matters more than position. The formula is (len(A) − LCS) + (len(B) − LCS).

Use cases in entity resolution

DNA sequence comparison

Code diff computation

File change detection

Version control merge analysis

Related tools

Levenshtein Distance

Calculate the minimum number of single-character edits (insertions, deletions, substitutions) needed to transform one string into another.

OSA Damerau-Levenshtein Distance

Calculate edit distance allowing insertions, deletions, substitutions, and transpositions — catches swapped adjacent characters like "teh" → "the".

Damerau-Levenshtein Distance

The true Damerau-Levenshtein distance — edit distance with unrestricted transpositions, the most accurate metric for real-world typing errors.

Don't implement this yourself

Tilores Studio runs the full matching engine — this algorithm plus configurable rules and real-time entity resolution — locally on your machine. Free, no account, no cloud. Load your own data and see it working in minutes.

Download Tilores Studio