In computer science, a pattern is defined as a sequence of data elements, and pattern matching as the process of finding this sequence in data. Any computer user who has used the Find function in a text editor has used a form of pattern matching known as exact matching. Similarly, anyone who has used a spell-checker or a wildcard search has used a form of inexact matching.

Inexact matching algorithms quantify the similarity of two patterns based on a wide variety of techniques. The resulting scoring can be used to rank the best matches and provide the most relevant results based on a search query.

Exact matching algorithms, by contrast, share a common functional behavior with one another in that they all produce identical results. These algorithms differ from each other in terms of their performance across time or resources spaces.

For examples of the many areas to which these algorithms are applied, click here.