comparing strings - better than soundex

[nmerriweather]

i read once, somewhere, i don't know where, that there is a better perl-mod or algorithm or something to match the sounds of strings than soundex.

i'm pretty sure it was a perl mod, but i think i'm wrong -- i can't find anything on this site or google or my books to suggest i was right

does anyone know what i'm talking about, or did i just dream up the existence of a 'better than soundex'?

[dree]

If you want to compare two words for its sound similarity, better algorithms than Soundex are:

Text::Metaphone and Text::DoubleMetaphone.

If you want string comparison (i.e. to order the results after a multiple match done by the above) you can try:

Text::Levenshtein or Text::WagnerFischer

If you want to compare entire phrases you can try also Text::PhraseDistance

[nmerriweather]

oh wow! great! i think metaphone was the one i had seen before. thats a great idea using those mods to order results too. you just saved me a few hours of work. and now metaphone will appear in the search box for the next person!

[blakem]

How about String::Approx?

-Blake