JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

by Kelvin Russell

HTML

<input type="text" id="searchField" placeholder="Type here">
<div id="results" style="display:none;"></div>

CSS

* { font: 18px "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; }

body { padding: 30px; }

#results { width: 10em; border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 5px; }

p { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
p span { color: #aba; }

JavaScript

$(function(){
    // Cache important elements and values
    var $searchField = $('#searchField'),
        $results = $('#results'),
        numberOfSuggestions = 12,
        shortlistWindowSize = 50,
        shortlist,
        thresholdDistance;
    
    // Do as little as possible in the keyboard event handler
    $searchField.on('keyup', function(){
        shortlist = [];
        thresholdDistance = 100;
        
        // Run through the full dictionary just once,
        // storing just the best N we've seen so far
        for (var i=0; i<dictionary.length; i++) {
            var dist = edit_distance(this.value, dictionary[i]);
            if (dist < thresholdDistance) {
                shortlist.unshift({
                    word: dictionary[i],
                    distance: dist
                });
                if (shortlist.length > shortlistWindowSize) {
                    shortlist.pop();
                    thresholdDistance = shortlist[shortlistWindowSize-1].distance;
                }
            }
        }
        
        // Do a final sorting of just the top words
        shortlist.sort(function(a,b){
            return a.distance - b.distance;
        });
    
        // Finally, format and show the suggestions to the user
        $results.html('<p>' + $.map(shortlist, function(el){
            return '<span>[dist=' + el.distance + ']</span> ' + el.word;
        }).slice(0,numberOfSuggestions).join('</p><p>') + '</p>').show();
    });






    // Helper function: Levenshtein distance
    var edit_distance = function(s1, s2) {
        // Auxiliary 2D array
        var arr = new Array(s1.length+1);
        for(var i=0 ; i<s1.length+1 ; i++)
            arr[i] = new Array(s2.length+1);
    
        // Algorithm
        for(var i=0 ; i<=s1.length ; i++)
            for(var j=0 ; j<=s2.length ; j++)
                arr[i][j] = 0;
        for(var i=0 ; i<=s1.length ; i++)
            arr[i][0] = i;
        for(var i=0 ; i<=s2.length ; i++)
    ...