(Long post) Metaphone Algorithm In AWK

Hi folks, hope you all are doing well.

Please excuse long post, wanted to share this, some might find
it handy given a certain context. Must run, I'm very behind in
my work (hey I'm always running behind!)


# metaphone.awk: Michael Sanders - 2024
#
# example invocation:
#
# echo "texas taxes taxi" | awk -f metaphone.awk -v find=texas
#
# notes:
#
# ever notice when you search for (say):
#
# 'i went to the zu'
#
# & your chosen search engine suggests something like:
#
# 'did you mean i went to the zoo'
#
# the metaphone algorithm handles such cases pretty well actually...
#
# Metaphone  is a phonetic algorithm, published by Lawrence Philips in
# 1990,   for  indexing  words  by  their  English  pronunciation.  It
# fundamentally improves on the Soundex algorithm by using information
# about   variations  and  inconsistencies  in  English  spelling  and
# pronunciation  to  produce  a  more  accurate encoding, which does a
# better job of matching words and names which sound similar.
# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphone
#
# english only (sorry)
#
# not extensively tested, nevertheless a solid start, if you
# improve this code please share your results
#
# other implentations...
#
# gist:  https://gist.github.com/Rostepher/b688f709587ac145a0b3
#
# BASIC: http://aspell.net/metaphone/metaphone.basic
#
# C:     http://aspell.net/metaphone/metaphone-kuhn.txt


# check if a character is a vowel
function isvowel(c, is_vowel) {
  is_vowel = c ~ /[AEIOU]/
  return is_vowel
}

# add a character or string to the result array
function phonize(s, result, p_idx, i) {
  for (i = 1; i <= length(s); i++) {
    result[p_idx++] = substr(s, i, 1)
  }
  return p_idx
}

# compute metaphone code
function metaphone(word, max_phonemes, result, p_idx, w_idx, c) {
  w_idx = 1
  p_idx = 1
  while (w_idx <= length(word) && p_idx <= max_phonemes) {
    c = toupper(substr(word, w_idx, 1))

    if (c == "B") {
      if (w_idx == 1 ||
          toupper(substr(word, w_idx - 1, 1)) != "M") {
        p_idx = phonize("B", result, p_idx)
      }
    } else if (c == "C") {
      if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) == "I" &&
          toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 2, 1)) ~ /[AO]/) {
        p_idx = phonize("SH", result, p_idx)
      } else if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) == "H") {
        p_idx = phonize("X", result, p_idx)
        w_idx++
      } else {
        p_idx = phonize("K", result, p_idx)
      }
    } else if (c == "D") {
      if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) == "G" &&
          toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 2, 1)) ~ /[EIY]/) {
        p_idx = phonize("J", result, p_idx)
        w_idx++
      } else {
        p_idx = phonize("T", result, p_idx)
      }
    } else if (c == "G") {
      if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) == "H") {
        if (w_idx > 1 &&
            toupper(substr(word, w_idx - 1, 1)) !~ /[BDH]/ &&
            toupper(substr(word, w_idx - 2, 1)) != "H") {
          p_idx = phonize("F", result, p_idx)
          w_idx++
        }
      } else if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) != "N" ||
                 toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 2, 1)) != "E") {
        p_idx = phonize("K", result, p_idx)
      }
    } else if (c == "H") {
      if (isvowel(toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1))) &&
          toupper(substr(word, w_idx - 1, 1)) !~ /[CGPST]/) {
        p_idx = phonize("H", result, p_idx)
      }
    } else if (c == "K") {
      if (w_idx == 1 ||
          toupper(substr(word, w_idx - 1, 1)) != "C") {
        p_idx = phonize("K", result, p_idx)
      }
    } else if (c == "P") {
      if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) == "H") {
        p_idx = phonize("F", result, p_idx)
      } else {
        p_idx = phonize("P", result, p_idx)
      }
    } else if (c == "Q") {
      p_idx = phonize("K", result, p_idx)
    } else if (c == "S") {
      if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) == "H") {
        p_idx = phonize("SH", result, p_idx)
        w_idx++
      } else if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) == "C" &&
                 toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 2, 1)) == "H") {
        p_idx = phonize("X", result, p_idx)
        w_idx += 2
      } else {
        p_idx = phonize("S", result, p_idx)
      }
    } else if (c == "T") {
      if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) == "I" &&
          toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 2, 1)) ~ /[AO]/) {
        p_idx = phonize("SH", result, p_idx)
      } else if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) == "H") {
        p_idx = phonize("TH", result, p_idx)
        w_idx++
      } else if (toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)) != "C" ||
                 toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 2, 1)) != "H") {
        p_idx = phonize("T", result, p_idx)
      }
    } else if (c == "V") {
      p_idx = phonize("F", result, p_idx)
    } else if (c == "W" || c == "Y") {
      if (isvowel(toupper(substr(word, w_idx + 1, 1)))) {
        p_idx = phonize(c, result, p_idx)
      }
    } else if (c == "X") {
      p_idx = phonize("KS", result, p_idx)
    } else if (c == "Z") {
      p_idx = phonize("S", result, p_idx)
    }

    w_idx++
  }

  if (p_idx > max_phonemes) p_idx = max_phonemes

  return substr(combine(result), 1, p_idx)
}

# combine array into a string
function combine(array, result, i) {
  result = ""
  for (i in array) {
    result = result array[i]
  }
  return result
}

BEGIN {
  # store metaphone code for "find" variable
  find_code = metaphone(find, 4)
}

{
  # loop through all fields (words) in the input line
  for (x = 1; x <= NF; x++) {
    # compute metaphone code for the current word
    word_code = metaphone($x, 4)
    # check if metaphone code of the current word matches
    if (word_code == find_code) {
      print $x  # print matching word
    }
  }
}

# eof

--
:wq
Mike Sanders