---
title: "EDIT_DISTANCE (Transact-SQL)"
description: EDIT_DISTANCE calculates the number of insertions, deletions, substitutions, and transpositions needed to transform one string to another.
author: MikeRayMSFT
ms.author: mikeray
ms.reviewer: abhtiwar, wiassaf, randolphwest
ms.date: 05/19/2025
ms.service: sql
ms.subservice: t-sql
ms.topic: reference
dev_langs:
  - "TSQL"
monikerRange: "=azuresqldb-current || =azuresqldb-mi-current || =fabric || >=sql-server-2016"
ms.custom:
  - build-2025
---

# EDIT_DISTANCE (Transact-SQL) preview

[!INCLUDE [sqlserver2025-asdb-asmi-fabricsqldb](../../includes/applies-to-version/sqlserver2025-asdb-asmi-fabricsqldb.md)]

[!INCLUDE [preview](../../includes/preview.md)]

Calculates the number of insertions, deletions, substitutions, and transpositions needed to transform one string to another.

> [!NOTE]
> - EDIT_DISTANCE is currently in preview. 
> - SQL Server support for EDIT_DISTANCE introduced in [!INCLUDE [sssql25-md](../../includes/sssql25-md.md)]. 

## Syntax

```syntaxsql
EDIT_DISTANCE (
    character_expression,
    character_expression [ , maximum_distance ]
)  
```

## Arguments

#### *character_expression*

An alphanumeric expression of character data. *character_expression* can be a constant, variable, or column. The character expression cannot be of type **varchar(max)** or **nvarchar(max)**.

#### *maximum_distance*

The maximum distance that should be computed. Integer. If greater than or equal to zero, then the function returns the actual distance value or a distance value that is greater than *maxiumum_distance* value. If the actual distance is greater than *maximum_distance*, then the function may return a value greater than or equal to *maximum_distance*. If the parameter is not specified or if *maximum_distance* is negative, then the function returns the actual number of transformations needed. If the value is NULL, then the function returns NULL.

## Return value

**int**

## Remarks

This function implements the Damerau-Levenshtein algorithm. If any of the inputs is `NULL` then the function returns a `NULL` value. Otherwise, the function returns an integer value from 0 to the number of transformations or *maximum_distance* value.

## Example

The following example compares two words and returns the `EDIT_DISTANCE()` value as a column, named `Distance`.

```sql
SELECT 'Colour' AS WordUK, 
       'Color' AS Word US, 
       EDIT_DISTANCE('Colour', 'Color') AS Distance;
```

Returns:

```output
WordUK WordUS Distance
------ ------ -----------
Colour Color  1
```

For additional examples, see [Example *EDIT_DISTANCE()*](../../relational-databases/fuzzy-string-match/overview.md#example-edit_distance).

## Related content

- [EDIT_DISTANCE_SIMILARITY](edit-distance-similarity-transact-sql.md)
- [JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE](jaro-winkler-distance-transact-sql.md)
- [JARO_WINKLER_SIMILARITY](jaro-winkler-similarity-transact-sql.md)