# leven [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/sindresorhus/leven.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/sindresorhus/leven) > Measure the difference between two strings > The fastest JS implementation of the [Levenshtein distance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance) algorithm ## Install ``` $ npm install --save leven ``` ## Usage ```js var leven = require('leven'); leven('cat', 'cow'); //=> 2 ``` ## Benchmark ``` $ npm run bench ``` ``` 343,757 op/s » leven 264,625 op/s » levenshtein-edit-distance 49,981 op/s » fast-levenshtein 25,496 op/s » levenshtein-component 18,240 op/s » levdist 17,554 op/s » ld 12,633 op/s » natural 9,960 op/s » levenshtein ``` ## CLI ``` $ npm install --global leven ``` ``` $ leven --help Example $ leven cat cow 2 ``` ## License MIT © [Sindre Sorhus](http://sindresorhus.com)