metaphone – PHP String Functions

Syntax :

Description :

metaphone() function calculates the metaphone key of string. A metaphone key represents how a string sounds if said by an English speaking person.

It can be used for spelling applications.

Similar to soundex() metaphone creates the same key for similar sounding words. metaphone() function is more accurate than soundex() as it knows the basic rules of English pronunciation. The metaphone generated keys are of variable length.

Metaphone was developed by Lawrence Philips <lphilips at verity dot com>. It is described in [“Practical Algorithms for Programmers”, Binstock & Rex, Addison Wesley, 1995].

Parameter :

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Name, Required /Optional, Value Type, Description

string , Required, String , It is the input string for which we have to calculate metaphone key.

key_length, Optional, Integer, Specifies the maximum length of the metaphone key.
[/table]

Output :

Returns the metaphone key as a string, or FALSE on failure.

Related articles :   soundex().

metaphone() – PHP Functions Example 1 : calculate metaphone key of strings.

<?php
var_dump(metaphone('tutorialmines'));
var_dump(metaphone('tutorial'));
?>

See below is the output of above code in web browser.

string(7) “TTRLMNS”
string(4) “TTRL”

metaphone() – PHP Functions Example 2 : Calculate metaphone key of strings with length parameter

<?php
var_dump(metaphone('tutorialmines',5));
var_dump(metaphone('tutorial',3));
?>

See below is the output of above code in Web browser.