---
id: pyjarowinkler
version: "3.0.0"
license: Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004 http://www.apache.org/licenses/ TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION 1. Definitions. "License" shall mean the terms and conditions for… (full text in the JSON record)
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# pyjarowinkler — Finds the Jaro Winkler Distance indicating a distance or similarity score between two strings.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 388.0K/mo

## What it is and what it does

pyjarowinkler implements the Jaro and Jaro-Winkler string similarity algorithms, which measure how alike two strings are on a scale between 0 and 1. Unlike edit-distance metrics, these algorithms weight errors at the end of strings more heavily and reward matching prefixes, making them useful for comparing short strings like names or addresses where transposition and suffix errors are common.

The package wraps the original C implementation of strcmp95 from the U.S. Census Bureau but adds Python conveniences: optional UTF-8 normalization, homoglyph detection (e.g., distinguishing Cyrillic from Latin characters), case-sensitivity control, and configurable decimal rounding. It has no runtime dependencies and supports Python 3.10 and later.

Use it for:

- Deduplicating or matching person names in databases where spelling variations and transpositions are common.
- Comparing address strings to identify duplicate or near-duplicate records in data cleaning pipelines.
- Fuzzy-matching product names or SKUs in e-commerce systems to handle typos and abbreviations.
- Detecting potential duplicate entries in user registration or data import workflows.
- Scoring string pairs in record linkage or entity resolution tasks where exact matching fails.

## Worth the install?

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

Computes Jaro and Jaro-Winkler similarity and distance scores between two strings, with optional UTF-8 normalization, case sensitivity control, and homoglyph sanitization.

Yes. This is a stable, actively maintained library with no dependencies, permissive licensing, and a focused, well-documented purpose. Install it if you need to compare short strings (names, addresses, codes) and want a non-edit-distance metric that handles transpositions and prefix similarity. The API is straightforward and the implementation is grounded in a published algorithm.

## Install

pip install pyjarowinkler
uv add pyjarowinkler
poetry add pyjarowinkler

## Installing pyjarowinkler

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with no runtime dependencies. Actively maintained with recent commits; last release 251 days ago and repository shows ongoing activity.

License in practice: Apache 2.0 permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; you must retain license notices and document modifications.

Quickstart:

from pyjarowinkler import distance

# Jaro similarity
distance.get_jaro_similarity("PENNSYLVANIA", "PENNCISYLVNIA", decimals=12)
# 0.830031080031

# Jaro-Winkler similarity
distance.get_jaro_winkler_similarity("hello", "haloa", decimals=2)
# 0.76

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package is thread-safe or suitable for concurrent use in multi-threaded applications.
- Performance characteristics on very long strings or in batch processing scenarios beyond the benchmark provided.

## Package facts

- License: Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004 http://www.apache.org/licenses/ TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION 1. Definitions. "License" shall mean the terms and conditions for… (full text in the JSON record) (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 388.0K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

string similarity scoring, jaro winkler distance, fuzzy string matching, text similarity algorithm, string comparison metric, edit distance alternative, phonetic string matching, string-similarity, fuzzy-matching, data-deduplication

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