Using a SoundEx to search for similar sounding names

This little demo uses a soundex index to search for similar sounding names in a database.

How to incorperate into your application:
Create a new field in your selected table:

Name: FldSoundexCode
Type: Long Integer

Create a new query and bring down the field you want to perform the soundex search on and the above field.

In a new column
Sn:GetSoundex([YourTextFieldHere])

Run the query. This should bring up 3 columns

Col1 : Your text field
Col2 : Your new empty field
Col3 : The soundex value of the text field

Highlight column 3 and select copy
Highlight column 2 and select paste.

Design the module ModSoundex as bring up the Function CheckForSimilarSurnames()

edit this line


Change it to match your table name and field name

Edit this line

strItems = strItems & rs("fldNameforLetter") & ";"

Change this to match any field(s) in yout table

Save and Close module

View the vba in the form FrmSoundexDemo to see how to use in your application.


David

Soundex is mind-bogglingly cool - I can't get over the fact that it's an algorithm that was invented in 1918 - before computers.