PHP : metaphone() function

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Description

The metaphone() function is used to calculate the metaphone key of a string.

Metaphone is a phonetic algorithm developed by Lawrence Philips. The algorithm produces variable length keys as its output, as opposed to Soundex's fixed-length keys. Similar sounding words share the same keys. It uses a larger set of rules for English pronunciation. Metaphone keys are very useful for text search and text matching applications.

Version

(PHP 4 and above)

Syntax

metaphone(input_string, key_length)

Parameter

Return value

Returns the metaphone key as a string, FALSE in failure.

Value Type : String.

Pictorial Presentation

Example :

<?php
$str = "w3resource";
echo $str;
echo "<br />";
$str1 = "dual";
$str2 = "dwell";
echo metaphone($str1);
echo "<br />";
echo metaphone($str2);
?>

Output :

w3resource
TL
TWL

View the example in the browser

See also

PHP Function Reference