excel - Find which cells have the smallest levenshtein distance -

so, have function return levenshtein distance between 2 strings:

function levenshtein(byval string1 string, byval string2 string) long  dim long, j long dim string1_length long dim string2_length long dim distance() long  string1_length = len(string1) string2_length = len(string2) redim distance(string1_length, string2_length)  = 0 string1_length     distance(i, 0) = next  j = 0 string2_length     distance(0, j) = j next  = 1 string1_length     j = 1 string2_length         if asc(mid$(string1, i, 1)) = asc(mid$(string2, j, 1))             distance(i, j) = distance(i - 1, j - 1)         else             distance(i, j) = application.worksheetfunction.min _             (distance(i - 1, j) + 1, _              distance(i, j - 1) + 1, _              distance(i - 1, j - 1) + 1)         end if     next next  levenshtein = distance(string1_length, string2_length)  end function 

i want perform fast comparison between cells in "a" column , return ones have "small" levenshtein distance. how make these comparisons?

do want find combinations of strings have small levenshtein distances or overall how similar/disimilar each string other strings?

if former should work fine:

you copy , paste transposed values create headers(as dale commented). can use conditional formatting highlight lowest results.

or if want actual strings return should able use this:

=if(and(levenshtein($a28,b$27)>0,levenshtein($a28,b$27)<=3),$a28&"/"&b$27,"") 

just copy , paste unique values if want returned combinations in single column.

good luck.