Hamming Distance Calculator for Equal-Length Strings

Calculates the Hamming distance between two equal-length strings, which is the number of positions at which the corresponding symbols are different.

Technology Stack : Uses the built-in function zip() to iterate over corresponding characters of the two strings and compare them for equality.

Code Type : Function

Code Difficulty : Intermediate

                
                    
def get_hamming_distance(str1, str2):
    """Calculate the Hamming distance between two equal-length strings.

    Args:
        str1 (str): The first string to compare.
        str2 (str): The second string to compare.

    Returns:
        int: The number of positions at which the corresponding symbols are different.

    Raises:
        ValueError: If the two strings are not of equal length.

    """
    if len(str1) != len(str2):
        raise ValueError("The two strings must be of equal length.")

    distance = sum(ch1 != ch2 for ch1, ch2 in zip(str1, str2))
    return distance