How to install python-levenshtein on Windows?

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After searching for days I'm about ready to give up finding precompiled binaries for Python 2.7 (Windows 64-bit) of the Python Levenshtein library , so not I'm attempting to compile it myself. I've installed the most recent version of MinGW32 (version 0.5-beta-20120426-1) and set it as the default compiler in distutils .

Here we go:

C:\Users\tomas>pip install python-levenshtein Downloading/unpacking python-levenshtein Running setup.py egg_info for package python-levenshtein warning: no files found matching '*' under directory 'docs' warning: no previously-included files matching '*pyc' found anywhere in distribution warning: no previously-included files matching '.project' found anywhere in distribution warning: no previously-included files matching '.pydevproject' found anywhere in distribution Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): setuptools in c:\python27\lib\site-packages\setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg (from python-levenshtein) Installing collected packages: python-levenshtein Running setup.py install for python-levenshtein building 'Levenshtein' extension C:\MinGW\bin\gcc.exe -mno-cygwin -mdll -O -Wall -IC:\Python27\include -IC:\Python27\PC -c Levenshtein.c -o build\temp.win-amd64-2.7\Release\levenshtein.o cc1.exe: error: unrecognized command line option '-mno-cygwin' error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1 Complete output from command C:\Python27\python.exe -c "import setuptools;__file__='c:\\users\\tomas\\appdata\\local\\temp\\pip-build\\python-levenshtein\\setup.py';exec(compile(open(__file__).rea d().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --record c:\users\tomas\appdata\local\temp\pip-7txyhp-record\install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed: running install running build running build_ext building 'Levenshtein' extension C:\MinGW\bin\gcc.exe -mno-cygwin -mdll -O -Wall -IC:\Python27\include -IC:\Python27\PC -c Levenshtein.c -o build\temp.win-amd64-2.7\Release\levenshtein.o cc1.exe: error: unrecognized command line option '-mno-cygwin' error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1

And now I'm stuck. I'm assuming that the -mno-cygwin option is outdated and no longer valid for the version of gcc that I have. If that is the case, I still have no clue how to fix that.

Thanks for any help anybody can offer on this issue.

EDIT:

I ran the compile line manually after removing the bad option:

C:\MinGW\bin\gcc.exe -mdll -O -Wall -IC:\Python27\include -IC:\Python27\PC -c Levenshtein.c -o build\temp.win-amd64-2.7\Release\levenshtein.o

Which successfully provided levenshtein.o in the build folder, but when I try to run python setup.py install then it just tries to build again and fails. Where can I remove -mno-cygwin ? I assume it's somewhere in the source of distutils but I can't find it.

yeah ive spent hours mostly unsuccessfully trying to compile python packages that are missing "varsal.bat" or whatever ,... trying to target different compilers (mingw/cygwin) .... really there should be a better way to compile these on windows :/ – Joran Beasley Nov 2, 2012 at 17:36 @BlaXpirit: It might come to that, but for now I'd prefer to avoid rewriting code and unit tests. – Hubro Nov 2, 2012 at 17:37 lol I swear i had problems even after installing mvs2008 ... but i just retried it and easy install worked fine for python-Levenshtein after i installed Visual C++ 2008 .... – Joran Beasley Nov 2, 2012 at 18:27

I tried all the methods here and nothing worked for my Windows 10. In the end, I found this library python-Levenshtein-wheels which is "pip-able" on Windows.

pip install python-Levenshtein-wheels
After this just use Levenshtein as usual
import Levenshtein
Levenshtein.distance('It works at last', 'Well it works at last')
UPDATE:
The library rapidfuzz provides even some more ratios built upon Levenshtein metric. Just pip install rapidfuzz. You can use them depending on your use cases. This an example
from rapidfuzz import fuzz
fuzz.ratio("fuzzy wuzzy was a bear", "wuzzy fuzzy was a bear")
# 90.90908813476562
fuzz.token_sort_ratio("fuzzy was a bear", "fuzzy fuzzy was a bear")
# 83.8709716796875
                Using python-Levenshtein-wheels is so much easier than any of the other answers and should generally be accepted since it's the only solution which doesn't require tooling outside of pip.
– bsplosion
                Dec 14, 2021 at 15:32
download    vcsetup.exe from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6506   (sorry this link is now broken it was for VC++ 2008 ... )
run it
after it finishes open your command.exe 
type :easy_install python-Levenshtein (this assumes you have setuptools already)
sit back and let it install
                bleh thats why links are bad ideas I suppose... basically you need VC++2008 for python2.7 and VC++2010 for python3.x   (I think those are the right versions) what python version are you installing for? I might have my precompiled one still around that I wrote this answer for ... I can look)
– Joran Beasley
                Apr 28, 2015 at 17:16
                I've found it so difficult to locate and install a working VC++ 2008 for Windows 8.1 x64 that I've actually given up.  Even when I find an old working version to install (MS won't link to it anymore), I end up getting different installation errors for libraries that depend on it. Gohlke's library has saved me a few times.
– Xodarap777
                Apr 28, 2015 at 17:41
Open a DOS window.
C:\Users\username> pip install fuzzywuzzy
C:\Users\username> pip install python-levenshtein
If you encountered the following error:
ERROR: Setup script exited with error: Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 is required. Get it with "Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools": https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/down
the solution is:
From python Levenshtein wheels: https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#python-levenshtein, download the relevant .whl: python_Levenshtein-0.12.0-cp37-cp37m-win_amd64.whl
Create a wheels directory (or whatever name you like) under the Python37 directory: C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\wheels
Copy or move the python_Levenshtein-0.12.0-cp37-cp37m-win_amd64.whl file from the download folder to the wheels folder.
Use NotePad to create a .bat file in Python37 directory, C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\pip_install_python-levenshtein.bat with the following lines (assuming C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\python.exe is the root directory for Python.exe):
cd C:\Users\sean3\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37
pip install --use-wheel --no-index --find-links=wheels wheels/python_Levenshtein-0.12.0-cp37-cp37m-win_amd64.whl
Run pip_install_python-levenshtein.bat:
C:\Users\firstname.lastname\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37> pip_install_python-levenshtein.bat >> output1.txt
C:\Users\firstname.lastname> pip install fuzzywuzzy
OUTPUT: Successfully installed python-Levenshtein-0.12.0

                That whole numbered list seems uselessly complicated to me. Grab the wheel at lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#python-levenshtein and install it with : python -m pip install <path/to/file>.whl.
– Manur
                Sep 9, 2022 at 14:05
For the answer by @Laurenz Albe this helped me as you must delete the "--use-wheel" 
Docker: no such option: --use-wheel
output - Successfully installed python-Levenshtein-0.12.0