Purpose
Returns a character string containing the phonetic representation of char. This function allows you to compare words that are spelled differently, but sound alike in English.
The phonetic representation is defined in The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3: Sorting and Searching, by Donald E. Knuth, as follows:
Retain the first letter of the string and remove all other occurrences of the following letters: a, e, h, i, o, u, w, y.
Assign numbers to the remaining letters (after the first) as follows:
b, f, p, v = 1
c, g, j, k, q, s, x, z = 2
d, t = 3
l = 4
m, n = 5
r = 6
If two or more letters with the same assigned number are adjacent, remove all but the first.
Return the first four bytes padded with 0.
Example
SELECT ename
FROM emp
WHERE SOUNDEX(ename)
= SOUNDEX('SMYTHE');
ENAME
----------
SMITH |
