Syntax

SOUNDEX(str)

Description

Returns a soundex string from str. Two strings that sound almost the same should have identical soundex strings. A standard soundex string is four characters long, but the SOUNDEX() function returns an arbitrarily long string. You can use SUBSTRING() on the result to get a standard soundex string. All non-alphabetic characters in str are ignored. All international alphabetic characters outside the A-Z range are treated as vowels.

Important: When using SOUNDEX(), you should be aware of the following limitations:

• This function, as currently implemented, is intended to work well with strings that are in the English language only. Strings in other languages may not produce reliable results.

Examples

SOUNDEX('Hello');
+------------------+
| SOUNDEX('Hello') |
+------------------+
| H400             |
+------------------+

SELECT SOUNDEX('MariaDB');
+--------------------+
| SOUNDEX('MariaDB') |
+--------------------+
| M631               |
+--------------------+

SELECT SOUNDEX('Knowledgebase');
+--------------------------+
| SOUNDEX('Knowledgebase') |
+--------------------------+
| K543212                  |
+--------------------------+

SELECT givenname, surname FROM users WHERE SOUNDEX(givenname) = SOUNDEX("robert");
+-----------+---------+
| givenname | surname |
+-----------+---------+
| Roberto   | Castro  |
+-----------+---------+

See Also

• SOUNDS LIKE()