FuzzyWuzzy is a Python library that implements fuzzy string matching, often used for comparing the similarity between two strings. It leverages Levenshtein distance to calculate ratios between strings. The current version is 0.18.0. Its release cadence has been infrequent in recent years.
pip install fuzzywuzzyVerified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.
Demonstrates basic usage of `fuzz` for various ratio calculations and `process` for extracting best matches from a list of choices.
Install with `pip install fuzzywuzzy[speedup]` to include the C++ optimized `python-levenshtein` library.
Be aware of the `processor` argument in functions like `process.extract` and consider implementing custom preprocessing if the default behavior is not suitable. For `fuzz` functions, you might need to preprocess strings yourself before passing them.
Consider alternatives like 'thefuzz' (a maintained fork) or 'rapidfuzz' for actively developed and often more performant solutions if long-term support or advanced features are critical.
Always check that the list of choices passed to `process` functions is not empty before making the call.
Ensure fuzzywuzzy is installed in your active Python environment using pip: `pip install fuzzywuzzy` or `pip3 install fuzzywuzzy`. If using Anaconda, try `conda install -c conda-forge fuzzywuzzy` or ensure your Python version is compatible (e.g., use Python 3.8 if experiencing issues with 3.9.4).
Instead of `import fuzzywuzzy` and then `fuzzywuzzy.fuzz.ratio()`, use `from fuzzywuzzy import fuzz` and then `fuzz.ratio()`.
Instead of `import fuzzywuzzy` and then `fuzzywuzzy.process.extractOne()`, use `from fuzzywuzzy import process` and then `process.extractOne()`.
Install the `python-Levenshtein` library to enable the faster C implementation: `pip install python-Levenshtein`. On Windows, you might also need to install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2015-2022 (x64).
pip install python-Levenshtein