Soundex phonetic algorithm.

• What is this?
• When should I use this?
• Install
• Use
• API
  • soundex(value[, maxLength])
• CLI
• Types
• Compatibility
• Related
• Contribute
• Security
• License

This package exposes a phonetic algorithm. That means it gets a certain string (typically a human name), and turns it into a code, which can then be compared to other codes (of other names), to check if they are (likely) pronounced the same.

You’re probably dealing with natural language, and know you need this, if you’re here!

Soundex is one of the earlier phonetics algorithms, specifically designed for surnames, inspiring others such as metaphone. metaphone (and double-metaphone) are better.

Depending on your goals, you likely want to additionally use a stemmer (such as stemmer).

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 14.14+, 16.0+), install with npm:

npm install soundex-code

In Deno with esm.sh:

import {soundex} from 'https://esm.sh/soundex-code@2'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import {soundex} from 'https://esm.sh/soundex-code@2?bundle'
</script>

import {soundex} from 'soundex-code'

soundex('phonetics') // => 'P532'
soundex('Ashcraft') // => 'A261'
soundex('Lissajous') // => 'L222'
soundex('Smith') === soundex('Schmit') // => true

soundex('Ashcraftersson', 6) // => 'A26136'
soundex('A', 6) // => 'A000'

This package exports the identifier soundex. There is no default export.

Get the soundex key from a given value.

Value to use (string, required).

Create a code that is at most maxLength in size (number, default: 4). The minimum is always 4 (padded on the right).

Soundex key for value (string).

Usage: soundex-code [options] <words...>

  Soundex phonetic algorithm.

Options:

  -h, --help           output usage information
  -v, --version        output version number

Usage:

# output phonetics
$ soundex-code phonetics unicorn
P532 U526

# output phonetics from stdin
$ echo "phonetics banana" | soundex-code
P532 B550

This package is fully typed with TypeScript. It exports no additional types.

This package is at least compatible with all maintained versions of Node.js. As of now, that is Node.js 14.14+ and 16.0+. It also works in Deno and modern browsers.

• metaphone — metaphone implementation
• double-metaphone — double metaphone implementation
• stemmer — porter stemmer algorithm
• dice-coefficient — sørensen–dice coefficient
• levenshtein-edit-distance — levenshtein edit distance
• syllable — syllable count in an English word

Yes please! See How to Contribute to Open Source.

This package is safe.

MIT © Titus Wormer