1. A method for reducing a set of strings to approximately match to a first string by determining an edit distance between the first string and the set of strings is within a predetermined threshold, the method comprising: (a) receiving, by a device, a request to approximately match a first string with a set of strings using a predetermined edit distance; (b) generating, by a device, a difference histogram comprising a distribution of a difference in a first number of occurrences of each character of a character set in the first string of the request and a second number of occurrences of each character of the character set in a second string of the set of strings, by incrementing each cell in the difference histogram corresponding to each character in the first string by a positive value and decrementing each cell in the difference histogram corresponding to each character set in the second string by a negative value; (c) determining, by a device, via the difference histogram that a first sum of values across a plurality of cells of the difference histogram is greater than a predetermined threshold and that a second sum of negative values across a second plurality of cells of the difference histogram is less than a negative of the predetermined threshold; and (d) identifying, by the device, the second string as having an edit distance from the first string greater than the predetermined edit distance in response to the determination.