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Text::Soundex(3pm)                    Perl Programmers Reference Guide                    Text::Soundex(3pm)



NAME
       Text::Soundex - Implementation of the soundex algorithm.

SYNOPSIS
         use Text::Soundex;

         # Original algorithm.
         $code = soundex($name);    # Get the soundex code for a name.
         @codes = soundex(@names);  # Get the list of codes for a list of names.

         # American Soundex variant (NARA) - Used for US census data.
         $code = soundex_nara($name);    # Get the soundex code for a name.
         @codes = soundex_nara(@names);  # Get the list of codes for a list of names.

         # Redefine the value that soundex() will return if the input string
         # contains no identifiable sounds within it.
         $Text::Soundex::nocode = 'Z000';

DESCRIPTION
       Soundex is a phonetic algorithm for indexing names by sound, as pronounced in English. The goal is
       for names with the same pronunciation to be encoded to the same representation so that they can be
       matched despite minor differences in spelling. Soundex is the most widely known of all phonetic
       algorithms and is often used (incorrectly) as a synonym for "phonetic algorithm". Improvements to
       Soundex are the basis for many modern phonetic algorithms. (Wikipedia, 2007)

       This module implements the original soundex algorithm developed by Robert Russell and Margaret Odell,
       patented in 1918 and 1922, as well as a variation called "American Soundex" used for US census data,
       and current maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

       The soundex algorithm may be recognized from Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming. The
       algorithm described by Knuth is the NARA algorithm.

       The value returned for strings which have no soundex encoding is defined using
       $Text::Soundex::nocode. The default value is "undef", however values such as 'Z000' are commonly used
       alternatives.

       For backward compatibility with older versions of this module the $Text::Soundex::nocode is exported
       into the caller's namespace as $soundex_nocode.

       In scalar context, "soundex()" returns the soundex code of its first argument. In list context, a
       list is returned in which each element is the soundex code for the corresponding argument passed to
       "soundex()". For example, the following code assigns @codes the value "('M200', 'S320')":

          @codes = soundex qw(Mike Stok);

       To use "Text::Soundex" to generate codes that can be used to search one of the publically available
       US Censuses, a variant of the soundex algorithm must be used:

           use Text::Soundex;
           $code = soundex_nara($name);

       An example of where these algorithm differ follows:

           use Text::Soundex;
           print soundex("Ashcraft"), "\n";       # prints: A226
           print soundex_nara("Ashcraft"), "\n";  # prints: A261

EXAMPLES
       Donald Knuth's examples of names and the soundex codes they map to are listed below:

         Euler, Ellery -> E460
         Gauss, Ghosh -> G200
         Hilbert, Heilbronn -> H416
         Knuth, Kant -> K530
         Lloyd, Ladd -> L300
         Lukasiewicz, Lissajous -> L222

       so:

         $code = soundex 'Knuth';         # $code contains 'K530'
         @list = soundex qw(Lloyd Gauss); # @list contains 'L300', 'G200'

LIMITATIONS
       As the soundex algorithm was originally used a long time ago in the US it considers only the English
       alphabet and pronunciation. In particular, non-ASCII characters will be ignored. The recommended
       method of dealing with characters that have accents, or other unicode characters, is to use the
       Text::Unidecode module available from CPAN. Either use the module explicitly:

           use Text::Soundex;
           use Text::Unidecode;

           print soundex(unidecode("Fran\xE7ais")), "\n"; # Prints "F652\n"

       Or use the convenient wrapper routine:

           use Text::Soundex 'soundex_unicode';

           print soundex_unicode("Fran\xE7ais"), "\n";    # Prints "F652\n"

       Since the soundex algorithm maps a large space (strings of arbitrary length) onto a small space
       (single letter plus 3 digits) no inference can be made about the similarity of two strings which end
       up with the same soundex code.  For example, both "Hilbert" and "Heilbronn" end up with a soundex
       code of "H416".

MAINTAINER
       This module is currently maintain by Mark Mielke ("mark@mielke.cc").

HISTORY
       Version 3 is a significant update to provide support for versions of Perl later than Perl 5.004.
       Specifically, the XS version of the soundex() subroutine understands strings that are encoded using
       UTF-8 (unicode strings).

       Version 2 of this module was a re-write by Mark Mielke ("mark@mielke.cc") to improve the speed of the
       subroutines. The XS version of the soundex() subroutine was introduced in 2.00.

       Version 1 of this module was written by Mike Stok ("mike@stok.co.uk") and was included into the Perl
       core library set.

       Dave Carlsen ("dcarlsen@csranet.com") made the request for the NARA algorithm to be included. The
       NARA soundex page can be viewed at: "http://www.nara.gov/genealogy/soundex/soundex.html"

       Ian Phillips ("ian@pipex.net") and Rich Pinder ("rpinder@hsc.usc.edu") supplied ideas and spotted
       mistakes for v1.x.



perl v5.12.5                                     2012-10-11                               Text::Soundex(3pm)