/ 
String-FuzzyMatch-0.01
/ String::FuzzyMatch

NAME

String::FuzzyMatch - match strings fuzzily

SYNOPSIS

my $filter = String::FuzzyFind->new(
    highlight_start => '[',
    highlight_end => ']',
);

$filter->filter( 'ab', ['aab','abc','acb','cba','aaa', 'abab'] );
# ['aab','abc','acb','abab' ]

# By default ignores diacritics and case in haystack
$filter->( 'ab', ['Aäb','abc','Äbc','äcb','cba','aaa'] );
# ['Aäb','abc','Äbc','äcb' ]

# By default respects diacritics in needle
$filter->( 'äb', ['aäb','abc','Äbc','äcb','cba','aaa'] );
# ['aäb','Äbc','äcb' ]

# Ignore diacritics in needle as well
my $ignore_diacritics = String::FuzzyFind->new(
    ignore_diacritics_lhs => 1,
);
$ignore_diacritics->( 'äb', ['aäb','abc','äbc','Äcb','cba','aaa'] );
# ['aäb','abc','äbc','Äcb']


$filter->highlight( 'ab', 'äcb' );
# '[ä]c[b]'

$filter->highlight( 'ab', 'äb/c' );
# '[äb]/c'

# HTML highlighting
my $html = String::FuzzyFind->new(
    highlight_start => '<highlight>',
    highlight_end => '</highlight>',
);
$html->highlight( 'ab', 'äcb' );
# '<highlight>ä</highlight>c<highlight>b</highlight>'

DESCRIPTION

This module fuzzily matches strings. All characters of the search string ("needle") must occur in sequence in the strings in the search list ("haystack"). So filtering by ab will find a/b, aaaab and cranberry.

The searcher expects Unicode strings and matches using Unicode semantics. The filter by default ignores diacritics and case in the haystack and case in the needle, searching for abba will also find ÄBBA by default.

This search approach is heavily inspired by the filtering in fzf but does not implement any of the advanced query language.

new

Creates a new filter

my $filter = String::FuzzyFilter->new();
highlight, highlight_start, highlight_end
highlight => '_'

String to use for highlighting. Default [ and ].

highlight_cb
highlight_cb =>  sub( $match ) { return "->$match<-" }

Callback to return a highlighted match. Default: undef.

match
match => 'caption'

Key of the hash to use for matching, if haystack contains only hashrefs. Can be a scalar or a callback. Default: undef.

->filter $needle, $haystack

my $results = $filter->filter( 'ab', ['ABBA','cabbage','all/users/ben','Änderungen (bearbeitet)','nobody'] );
# ['ABBA','cabbage','all/users/ben','Änderungen (bearbeitet)']

Filters a list by the query given as string. All strings are assumed to be Unicode strings.

->highlight $needle, $str

Returns a string with the matched parts of a string highlighted.

my $higlighted = $filter->highlight( 'ab', 'all/users/ben' );
# '[a]ll/users/[b]en'

Note that the returned string will be in NFD.

REPOSITORY

The public repository of this module is https://github.com/Corion/String-FuzzyMatch.

SUPPORT

The public support forum of this module is https://perlmonks.org/.

BUG TRACKER

Please report bugs in this module via the Github bug queue at https://github.com/Corion/String-FuzzyMatch/issues

AUTHOR

Max Maischein corion@cpan.org

COPYRIGHT (c)

Copyright 2026-2026 by Max Maischein corion@cpan.org.

LICENSE

This module is released under the same terms as Perl itself.