Soundex is a phonetic algorithm for indexing names by sound, as pronounced in English.
The Soundex code for a word consists of a letter followed by three digits: the letter is the first letter of the name, and the digits encode the consonants. The goal is for homophones to be encoded to the same representation so that they can be matched despite minor differences in spelling.
| 1 | B F P V |
| 2 | C G J K Q S X Z |
| 3 | D T |
| 4 | L |
| 5 | M N |
| 6 | R |
Rules
- Keep and capitalize the first letter.
- Skip vowels.
- Convert consonants into numbers(see table).
- Skip duplicates.
- Stop at 3 numbers, pad with zeroes if needed.
Examples
Tymczak -> T522 Soundex -> S532 Example -> E251 Sownteks -> S532 Ekzampul -> E251 Hilbert -> H416 Knuth -> K530 Ellery -> E460 Heilbronn -> H416 Kant -> K530 Ladd -> L300 Wheaton -> W350 Ashcraft -> A226 Burroughs -> B622 Burrows -> B620 Honeyman -> H555 Euler -> E460 Lukasiewicz -> L222 Lissajous -> L222 Robert -> R163 O'Hara -> O600 Jackson -> J250 Gauss -> G200 Ghosh -> G200 PFISTER -> P236 Lloyd -> L300
- Soundex Encoder, Uxntal
incoming: 2026