What is a potential solution for comparing strings that are not exactly equal in PHP?

When comparing strings that are not exactly equal in PHP, a potential solution is to use the `similar_text()` function. This function calculates the similarity between two strings based on the number of matching characters. By comparing the similarity score, you can determine how closely the strings match.

$string1 = "apple";
$string2 = "aple";
$similarity = similar_text($string1, $string2);

if($similarity >= 80) {
    echo "The strings are similar enough.";
} else {
    echo "The strings are not similar enough.";
}