How to cluster similar strings?

Hi all,

I have long lists of strings which I have automatically collected with a brute web scraping routine. However, many strings are pretty similar and I would like to reduce the length of the list by showing only the really different names. Is there any way, cluster together the strings? Below, you will find a sample of the list.

Thank you so much.

Best regards.

{'microbiologia agraria'                     }
{'microbiologia forestale e ambientale'      }
{'microbiologia generale'                    }
{'microbiologia agraria'                     }
{'microbiologia generale e ambientale'       }
{'microbiologia del suolo e del sottosuolo'  }
{'nutrition and health: the functional foods'}
{'microbiologia generale e ambientale'       }
{'microbial biotechnologies in agroforestry' }
{'microbiologia generale ed ambientale'      }
{'microbiologia agraria e forestale'         }

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

This might help: Another answer on Hamming Distance

[Serbring]

Thanks for your reply. I already knew those distances, but the real problem is how to deal with those number. I will try to be more specific, so that you will understand the basic idea of the algorithm I have developed.

Let's assume, I have three strings A, B and C. I computed the pair-wise distance between the strings (so:A - B, A-C, B-C), and then I summed the distance of one string with the other two (so A-B and A-C for A). Then, I don't have any idea on how to deal with those number. Any suggestion is appreciate.

Cheers

Michele