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HammingDistance[u,v]

gives the Hamming distance between strings, vectors or biomolecular sequences u and v.

Details and Options
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Options  
IgnoreCase  
Applications  
Properties & Relations  
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HammingDistance

HammingDistance[u,v]

gives the Hamming distance between strings, vectors or biomolecular sequences u and v.

Details and Options

Examples

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Basic Examples  (3)

Hamming distance between two strings:

Wolfram Language code: HammingDistance["abc", "cba"]

Hamming distance between two vectors:

Wolfram Language code: HammingDistance[{1, 0, 0, 1, 1}, {0, 0, 1, 0, 1}]

Hamming distance between two biomolecular sequences:

Wolfram Language code: HammingDistance[BioSequence["DNA", "TGG"], BioSequence["DNA", "CGA"]]

Scope  (2)

Compute distance between any strings of equal length:

Wolfram Language code: HammingDistance["abcdefghijklmn", "akmdjbglhfecni"]

Compute distance between any vectors of equal length:

Wolfram Language code: HammingDistance[RandomInteger[1, 100], RandomInteger[1, 100]]

Options  (1)

IgnoreCase  (1)

Obtain Hamming distance, ignoring case of letters:

Wolfram Language code: HammingDistance["abc", "AbC", IgnoreCase -> True]

Applications  (2)

Cluster string data using Hamming distance:

Wolfram Language code: FindClusters[{"abc", "xyz", "bca", "xyw"}, DistanceFunction -> HammingDistance]

Cluster numeric data using Hamming distance:

Wolfram Language code: FindClusters[{{0, 1}, {1, 1}, {0, 0}, {1, 0}}, DistanceFunction -> HammingDistance]

Properties & Relations  (2)

HammingDistance is equivalent to ManhattanDistance for 0, 1 data:

Wolfram Language code: HammingDistance[{0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0}, {1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0}]
Wolfram Language code: ManhattanDistance[{0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0}, {1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0}]

HammingDistance is greater than or equal to EditDistance:

Wolfram Language code: HammingDistance[{0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0}, {1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0}]
Wolfram Language code: EditDistance[{0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0}, {1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0}]
Wolfram Language code: HammingDistance["bccbbcb", "ccbcccb"]
Wolfram Language code: EditDistance["bccbbcb", "ccbcccb"]
Wolfram Research (2007), HammingDistance, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/HammingDistance.html (updated 2020).

Text

Wolfram Research (2007), HammingDistance, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/HammingDistance.html (updated 2020).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2007. "HammingDistance." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2020. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/HammingDistance.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2007). HammingDistance. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/HammingDistance.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_hammingdistance, author="Wolfram Research", title="{HammingDistance}", year="2020", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/HammingDistance.html}", note=[Accessed: 13-June-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2026_hammingdistance, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={HammingDistance}, year={2020}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/HammingDistance.html}, note=[Accessed: 13-June-2026]}