---
id: jaro-winkler
version: "2.0.3"
license: GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3)
license_treatment: copyleft
maintenance: abandoned
---

# jaro-winkler — Original, standard and customisable versions of the Jaro-Winkler functions.

License: copyleft · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 1.1M/mo

## What it is and what it does

jaro-winkler is a Python implementation of the Jaro and Jaro-Winkler string similarity algorithms. It provides three main functions: jaro_metric() for the standard Jaro algorithm, jaro_winkler_metric() for Winkler's variant (which boosts scores for matching prefixes), and original_metric() which replicates the reference C implementation including typo tables. The package also offers custom_metric() for users who want to tune parameters like prefix scaling, boost thresholds, and typo penalties.

The library has no external runtime dependencies and installs as a pure Python wheel. It is designed for comparing pairs of strings and returning a normalized score; null strings are treated as equal, and the caller is responsible for case normalization and whitespace handling. The package is abandoned as of August 2022 with no recent maintenance.

Use it for:

- Detect potential duplicate records in databases by scoring name or address field similarity
- Implement fuzzy matching in search interfaces to find close matches when exact matches fail
- Validate data entry by comparing user input against reference strings with a configurable threshold
- Deduplicate contact lists or customer records where names may be spelled slightly differently
- Score spelling corrections or typo suggestions in text processing pipelines

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Computes Jaro and Jaro-Winkler string similarity scores, returning values from 0 (no match) to 1 (perfect match) for comparing two strings.

Yes, if you need a lightweight, dependency-free Jaro-Winkler implementation for a stable use case. The package works and has no known vulnerabilities, but it is abandoned—no updates are expected. The GPLv3 license is a blocker for proprietary projects. Suitable for internal tools, open-source projects, or research where you can accept no future maintenance.

## Install

pip install jaro-winkler
uv add jaro-winkler
poetry add jaro-winkler

## Installing jaro-winkler

Before you install: Low install friction with no runtime dependencies. However, the package is abandoned—last release was 2022-08-05 and no commits since then. Use only if the existing functionality meets your needs without expecting updates or maintenance.

License in practice: Licensed under GPLv3 (copyleft). Any derivative work or modification must also be released under GPLv3; proprietary or closed-source projects cannot incorporate this package without licensing implications.

Quickstart:

pip install jaro-winkler

import jaro
score = jaro.jaro_winkler_metric('SHACKLEFORD', 'SHACKELFORD')
print(score)  # Returns similarity score between 0 and 1

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works correctly with modern Python versions (python_support is unspecified in the fact sheet)
- Performance characteristics when comparing large numbers of string pairs
- Behavior with non-ASCII or special Unicode characters beyond the documented unicode string expectation

## Package facts

- License: GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3) (copyleft)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 1.1M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

string similarity scoring, jaro winkler metric, fuzzy string matching, string distance algorithm, text comparison scoring, duplicate detection, string-matching, abandoned

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/jaro-winkler) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/jaro-winkler/)