Title: Finding strings by how they sound using Metaphone Beta 1
Question: Another algorithm for determining how a string sounds
Answer:
This article is replaced by the far better coded article at this address this implementation is buggy, however the urls described in the article are up to date and if you are interested in the algorithm they are a must check
The code is below, I obtained it by translating the Metaphone.cc unit of the htDig search engine, it works in C well but the translation I made aint the better, Why? because I translated mostly using the C approach and not the Delphi one.
I would also like to encourage research on a better (faster less code bloated) tanslation of this algorithm, I am working on one. If you happen to have a better translation post it.
NOTES: This algorithm as well as soundex are english only so no unicode support, or support for , , and miscelaneous characters
The MetaPhone algorithm function you see below strips any non alphabetic characters so dont worry. Also please remember that this algorithm is in Beta
A description of the metaphone algorithm is available at this page also there is the double metaphone algorithm wich is also implemented on C and with a description at ASpell site
UPDATE: There is already a metaphone implementation in delphi you can find it at SourceForge that version is far better than this Beta
const
MAXPHONEMELEN = 6;
procedure Metaphone(Word: String; var Key: String);
const
vsvfn: array[65..90] of Integer = (
1, 16, 4, 16, 9, 2, 4, 16, 9, 2, 0, 2, 2,
{* A B C D E F G H I J K L M *}
2, 1, 4, 0, 2, 4, 4, 1, 0, 0, 0, 8, 0);
{ N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z }
function vscode(x: Char): Integer;
begin
if ((x ='A') and (x 'Z')) then
Result := vsvfn[ord(x)]
else
Result := 0;
end;
function Vowel(x: Char): Boolean;
begin
Result := StrUpper(@x)^ in ['A','E','I','O','U'];
end;
function Same(x: Char): Boolean;
begin
Result := vsvfn[ord(x)] mod 2 = 0;
end;
function Varson(x: Char): Boolean;
begin
Result := vsvfn[ord(x)] mod 4 = 0;
end;
function frontv(x: Char): Boolean;
begin
Result := StrUpper(@x)^ in ['E','I','Y'];
end;
function noghf(x: char): Boolean;
begin
Result := vsvfn[ord(x)] mod 16 = 0;
end;
function IsAlpha(x: Char): Boolean;
begin
Result := (Ord(StrUpper(@x)^) = 65) and
(Ord(StrUpper(@x)^) 90);
end;
var
i: Integer;
Tmp: String;
begin
if (Length(Word) = 0) then Exit;
Key := '';
{Copy word to internal buffer and drop any non alphabetic
characters}
Tmp := UpperCase(Word);
for i := 1 to Length(Tmp) do
if not IsAlpha(Tmp[i]) then
Delete(Tmp, i, 1);
{Now Check for PN, KN, GN, AE, WR, WH, and X at start}
case Tmp[1] of
//PN, KN , GN become N
'P', 'K', 'N':
if Tmp[2] = 'N' then
Delete(Tmp, 1, 1);
//AE becomes E
'A': if Tmp[2] = 'E' then Delete(Tmp, 1, 1);
//'WR' becomes 'R', and 'WH' to 'W'
'W':
case Tmp[2] of
'R': Delete(Tmp, 1, 1);
'H': Delete(Tmp, 2, 1);
end;
//'X' becomes 'S'
'X': Tmp[1] := 'S';
end;
{ Now, loop step through string, stopping at end of string or when
the computed 'metaph' is MAXPHONEMELEN characters long}
i := 1;
while (Length(Key) or (i = Length(Tmp)) do
begin
//Drop duplicates except for CC
if (Tmp[i] = Tmp[i+1]) and (Tmp[i] 'C') then
begin
inc(i);
Continue;
end;
//Check for F J L M N R or first letter vowel
if Same(Tmp[i]) or Vowel(Tmp[i]) then
Key := Key + Tmp[i]
else
begin
case Tmp[i] of
'B': //unless in MB
if (i 1) or (Tmp[i -1] 'M') then
Key := Key + Tmp[i];
{X if in -CIA-, -CH- else S if in
-CI-, -CE-, -CY- else dropped if
in -SCI-, -SCE-, -SCY- else K}
'C':
if ((i 1) and (Tmp[i-1]'S')) or not Frontv(Tmp[i+1]) then
begin
if (Tmp[i+1] = 'I') and (Tmp[i+2] = 'A') then
begin
Key := Key + 'X';
inc(i, 3);
Continue;
end else if FrontV(Tmp[i+1]) then Key := Key + 'S';
end;
'D'://J if in DGE or DGI or DGY else T
if (Tmp[i+1] = 'G') and FrontV(Tmp[i+2]) then
Key := Key + 'J'
else
Key := Key + 'T';
'G':
{F if in -GH and not B--GH, D--GH,
-H--GH, -H---GH else dropped if
-GNED, -GN, -DGE-, -DGI-, -DGY-
else J if in -GE-, -GI-, -GY- and
not GG else K}
if (Tmp[i+1] 'G') or Vowel(Tmp[i+2]) and
((Tmp[i+1] 'N') or (i or
(Tmp[i+2] 'E') or (Tmp[i+3] 'D') and
((Tmp[i -1] 'D') or not FrontV(Tmp[i+1])))
then
begin
if FrontV(Tmp[i+1]) and (Tmp[i+2] 'G') then
Key := Key + 'J'
else
Key := Key + 'K';
end else
if (Tmp[i+1] = 'H') AND (not Noghf(Tmp[i-3])) and
(Tmp[i - 4]'H') then Key := Key + 'F';
//H if before a vowel and not after C, G, P, S, T
//else dropped
'H':
if ((i 1) and not Varson(Tmp[i-1]) and
(((i 1) and not Vowel(Tmp[i-1]) or
Vowel(Tmp[i-1]))))
then
Key := Key + 'H';
//dropped if after C else K
'K':
if ((i 1) and (Tmp[i-1] 'C')) then
key := key + 'K';
//F if before H, else P
'P':
if (Tmp[i+1] = 'H') then
begin
Key := Key + 'F';
inc(i);
end else
Key := Key + 'P';
'Q': Key := Key + 'K';
{X in -SH-, -SIO- or -SIA- else S}
'S':
if (Tmp[i+1] = 'H') or ((Tmp[i+1] = 'I')
and ((Tmp[i+1] = 'A') or (Tmp[i+1] = 'O')))
then
begin
if (Tmp[i+1] = 'H') then inc(i, 1);
if (Tmp[i+1] = 'I') then inc(i, 2);
Key := Key + 'X';
end else
Key := Key + 'S';
{ X in -TIA- or -TIO- else 0 (zero) before H else dropped if in -TCH-
else T}
'T':
if (Tmp[i+1] = 'I') and ((Tmp[i+2] = 'A') or (Tmp[i+2] = 'O')) then
begin
Key := Key + 'X';
inc(i, 3);
Continue;
end else if (Tmp[i+1] = 'H') then
begin
Key := '0';
inc(i, 2);
Continue;
end else if (Tmp[i+1] 'C') or (Tmp[i+2] = 'H') then
begin
Key := Key + 'T';
inc(i, 3);
Continue;
end;
'V': Key := Key + 'F';
'X': if (Tmp[i-1] = ' ') then Key := Key + 'S'
else Key := Key + 'KS';
'Y': if Vowel(Tmp[i +1]) then
begin
inc(i);
Key := Key + Tmp[i];
Continue;
end;
'Z': Key := Key + 'S';
end;
inc(i);
end;
end;
end;