question: private static int limitedLevenshtein ( final String str1 , final String str2 , int idx1 , int idx2 , final int limit ) { while ( true ) { if ( idx1 == str1 . length ( ) ) { return str2 . length ( ) - idx2 ; } else if ( idx2 == str2 . length ( ) ) { return str1 . length ( ) - idx1 ; } else if ( str1 . charAt ( idx1 ) != str2 . charAt ( idx2 ) ) { if ( limit < 1 ) { return 1 ; } else { return 1 + bestLimLev ( str1 , str2 , idx1 , idx2 , limit - 1 ) ; } } ++ idx1 ; ++ idx2 ; } }
target:  Calculate the Levenshtein distance of two strings using index arithmetic given a maximum distance value to terminate calculation. This is not exactly the Levenshtein algorithm, but fits our need to quickly look for similar strings.