Thank you SO much for all this information Shawn! I really appreciate it and this is exactly what I needed! --- In [email protected], "Shawn K. Hall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Mandy, > > > Basically the user enters a surname and the software > > has to search for surnames that are exact, similar in > > spelling or that sound the same. This is probably > > something very common and simple... > > I wouldn't say "very" but it's common for entities that need very > large database support and have near inifinite customer data. At > Kaiser we had situations like this where we'd have 'new' patients > sign up and they wanted me to do the same thing FROM EXCEL. It was > horrible - for the hourly rate they were wanting you'd think they > could at least let me compile a 'real' app at home as a data gateway > or something. > > > > > Could I ask you to give me a brief explanation of Soundex > > and phonetic or ascii evaluation etc. > > ASCII evaluation is an 'exact character match': > "joh%" returns "john" and "johnathan" but not "jon" > > Phonetic is sound-based, and an explicit match for certain patterns: > "j[([o|u][h|a])|aw]%" would return nearly every common variant of > "john" but also stuff like "johan" and "joan", it also more easily > returns international characters that are, to put it plainly, a PITA > to type on a QWERTY keyboard for the common user. > > SoundEx is an interesting encoding standard that is directly > supported by every 32 bit windows application via API calls (IIRC), > but is about as rare in implementation as real sugar in soda. :( > > The premise is that every sound can be converted to a numerical > representation based on it's actual sound and position. They're > usually used only for the first few characters or two syllables of a > word, and the user is usually expected to be able to provide sound > matching terms (iow, searching for variants of "john" would require > the user to type "john" - but if the user is incapable of > verbalizing/representing the search term for any reason (language > barriers, for example) then you'll never get a match. The best > reference site I could find off the top of my head appears to be > this one: > http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/numbers/soundex.html > > Regards, > > Shawn K. Hall > http://12PointDesign.com/ > http://ReliableAnswers.com/ > > '// ======================================================== > I swear it will be done. > -- 'Count Rugen', The Princess Bride '// ======================================================= Rules : http://ReliableAnswers.com/List/Rules.asp Home : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vbHelp/ ======================================================= Post : [email protected] Join : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Leave : [EMAIL PROTECTED] '// ======================================================= Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vbhelp/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
