diff --git a/src/main/java/htsjdk/samtools/util/StringUtil.java b/src/main/java/htsjdk/samtools/util/StringUtil.java
index ecb1b3f49..90492533e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/htsjdk/samtools/util/StringUtil.java
+++ b/src/main/java/htsjdk/samtools/util/StringUtil.java
@@ -545,4 +545,59 @@ public static int levenshteinDistance(final String string1, final String string2
 
         return i;
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Calculates the Hamming distance (number of character mismatches) between two strings s1 and s2.
+     * Since Hamming distance is not defined for strings of differing lengths, we throw an exception if
+     * the two strings are of different lengths.  Hamming distance is case sensitive and does not have
+     * any special treatment for DNA.
+     *
+     * @param s1 The first string to compare
+     * @param s2 The second string to compare, note that if s1 and s2 are swapped the value returned will be identical.
+     * @return Hamming distance between s1 and s2.
+     * @throws IllegalArgumentException If the two strings have differing lengths.
+     */
+    public static int hammingDistance(final String s1, final String s2) {
+        if (s1.length() != s2.length()) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Attempted to determine Hamming distance of strings with differing lengths. " +
+                    "The first string has length " + s1.length() + " and the second string has length " + s2.length() + ".");
+        }
+        int measuredDistance = 0;
+        for (int i = 0;i < s1.length();i++) {
+            if (s1.charAt(i) != s2.charAt(i)) {
+                measuredDistance++;
+            }
+        }
+        return measuredDistance;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Determines if two strings s1 and s2 are within maxHammingDistance of each other using the Hamming distance metric.
+     * Since Hamming distance is not defined for strings of differing lengths, we throw an exception if
+     * the two strings are of different lengths.  Hamming distance is case sensitive and does not have any
+     * special treatment for DNA.
+     *
+     * @param s1 The first string to compare
+     * @param s2 The second string to compare, note that if s1 and s2 are swapped the value returned will be identical.
+     * @param maxHammingDistance The largest Hamming distance the strings can have for this function to return true.
+     * @return true if the two strings are within maxHammingDistance of each other, false otherwise.
+     * @throws IllegalArgumentException If the two strings have differing lengths.
+     */
+    public static boolean isWithinHammingDistance(final String s1, final String s2, final int maxHammingDistance) {
+        if (s1.length() != s2.length()) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Attempted to determine if two strings of different length were within a specified edit distance.");
+        }
+        int measuredDistance = 0;
+        for (int i = 0;i < s1.length();i++) {
+            if (s1.charAt(i) != s2.charAt(i)) {
+                measuredDistance++;
+                // If the measuredDistance is larger than the maxHammingDistance we can short circuit and return
+                // false, there is no need to continue evaluating the distance.
+                if (measuredDistance > maxHammingDistance) {
+                    return false;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        return true;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/htsjdk/samtools/util/StringUtilTest.java b/src/test/java/htsjdk/samtools/util/StringUtilTest.java
index 91e8792f4..dbb2a0709 100644
--- a/src/test/java/htsjdk/samtools/util/StringUtilTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/htsjdk/samtools/util/StringUtilTest.java
@@ -67,4 +67,56 @@ public void testSplit(final String input, final String[] expectedResult, final b
                 {"A:BB:C:", new String[]{"A", "BB", "C:"}, true}, 
         };
     }
+
+    @DataProvider(name="withinHammingDistanceProvider")
+    public Object[][] isWithinHammingDistanceProvider() {
+        return new Object[][] {
+                {"ATAC", "GCAT", 3, true},
+                {"ATAC", "GCAT", 2, false},
+                {"ATAC", "GCAT", 1, false},
+                {"ATAC", "GCAT", 0, false}
+        };
+    }
+
+    @Test(dataProvider = "withinHammingDistanceProvider")
+    public void testIsWithinHammingDistance(final String s1, final String s2, final int maxHammingDistance, final boolean expectedResult) {
+        Assert.assertEquals(StringUtil.isWithinHammingDistance(s1, s2, maxHammingDistance), expectedResult);
+    }
+
+    @DataProvider(name="withinHammingDistanceExceptionProvider")
+    public Object[][] isWithinHammingDistanceException() {
+        return new Object[][] {
+                {"ATAC", "GCT" , 3},
+                {"ATAC", "AT"  , 2},
+                {"ATAC", "T"   , 1},
+                {""    , "GCAT", 0}
+        };
+    }
+
+    @Test(dataProvider = "withinHammingDistanceExceptionProvider", expectedExceptions = IllegalArgumentException.class)
+    public void testIsWithinHammingDistanceExceptions(final String s1, final String s2, final int maxHammingDistance) {
+        StringUtil.isWithinHammingDistance(s1, s2, maxHammingDistance);
+    }
+
+    @Test(dataProvider = "withinHammingDistanceExceptionProvider", expectedExceptions = IllegalArgumentException.class)
+    public void testHammingDistanceExceptions(final String s1, final String s2, final int maxHammingDistance) {
+        StringUtil.hammingDistance(s1, s2);
+    }
+
+    @DataProvider(name="hammingDistanceProvider")
+    public Object[][] hammingDistance() {
+        return new Object[][] {
+                {"ATAC" , "GCAT" , 3},
+                {"ATAGC", "ATAGC", 0},
+                {"ATAC" , "atac" , 4}, // Hamming distance is case sensitive.
+                {""     , ""     , 0}, // Two empty strings should have Hamming distance of 0.
+                {"nAGTN", "nAGTN", 0} // Ensure that matching Ns are not counted as mismatches.
+        };
+    }
+
+    @Test(dataProvider = "hammingDistanceProvider")
+    public void testHammingDistance(final String s1, final String s2, final int expectedResult) {
+        Assert.assertEquals(StringUtil.hammingDistance(s1, s2), expectedResult);
+    }
+
 }