Query string matching method and apparatus

A computerized method for increasing relevance of database search results, the method comprising:

• electronically receiving, via a computing device, a subject query string, the subject query string capable of including a plurality of words;
• determining, via the computing device, a trained edit distance between the subject query string and at least one candidate string using trained cost factors derived from a training set of labeled query transformations, a trained cost factor comprises a sum of a conditional probability for mutations labeled as non-relevant query transformations and a conditional probability for mutations labeled as relevant query transformations, determining the trained edit distance includes using a multi-dimensional cost matrix, which is a transition matrix, including the trained cost factors, the cost matrix includes a list of acceptable mutations for a given query string and one or more probabilities of occurrence for a given character;
• evaluating, via the computing device, the at least one candidate string for selection based on the trained edit distance;
• and
• providing a list of candidate string, wherein determining the trained edit distance includes using the list of candidate strings.