Approximate string matching is used for spelling correction and personal name matching. In this paper we show how to use string matching techniques in conjunction with lexicon indexes to find approximate matches in a large lexicon. We test several lexicon indexing techniques, including n‐grams and permuted lexicons, and several string matching techniques, including string similarity measures and phonetic coding. We propose methods for combining these techniques, and show experimentally that these combinations yield good retrieval effectiveness while keeping index size and retrieval time low. Our experiments also suggest that, in contrast to previous claims, phonetic codings are markedly inferior to string distance measures, which are demonstrated to be suitable for both spelling correction and personal name matching.

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Achieving confidence in the correctness, completeness and consistency of requirements specifications can be problematic and the consequences of incorrect requirements can be costly. In this paper we argue that specification and animation can provide reasonably high levels of assurance in the requirements without the overheads of using general purpose theorem proving tools. We propose a framework based on mode analysis and the operational semantics of logic programs for animating specifications. The framework allows us to combine prototyping and limited forms of automated deduction to increase our levels of confidence in specifications. Finally, we show how such a framework can be used to increase the level of confidence in the correctness of a simple dependency management system specification written in Z.