Adrian Gould — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:47:08 GMT

Vivek,

thank you for a well written and explained article. It has given me a load of ideas that may just help in a couple of places, especially in creating an assessment for my students :-)

In reply to Jessica Ender’s comment:

One such “fuzzy logic” method to suggest alternatives to similarly names comes in the form of the SOUNDEX code. This enabled Smith Smithe Smyth Smythe all to be recognised as “the same”.

Add this to the people finder base algorithm and you automatically extend the possible results.

I agree that the concept works exceptionally well in theory and would provide a beautiful method to add to the search arsenal in a contact manager or similar. Take the “Tim C” approach one step further and add nicknames to the search pool and you possibly gain another ‘fast find’ factor to the method.

Adrian, Lecturer Swan TAFE, Midland Western Australia

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Adrian Gould