Question

I have a MySQL query as below;

$query = "SELECT * FROM dictionary WHERE word LIKE '%".$word."%' ORDER BY word LIMIT 10";

This will search for (and display) words in my dictionary db.

the search will return;

Drunken for Drunk, etc, etc.. ,
Drunken for Drunke, etc, etc..
and Drunken for Drunken, etc, etc..

But it won’t return Drunken for Drunkin. I would like to display this word as a suggestion word (like the one we see in google). How can I do this?

below is my complete code for reference;

$db = new pdo("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=dictionary", "root", "password");
$query = "SELECT * FROM dictionary WHERE word LIKE '%".$word."%' ORDER BY word LIMIT 10";
$result = $db->query($query);
$end_result = '';
if ($result) {
    while ( $r = $result->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC) ) {
        $end_result .= $r['word'].'<br>';
    }
}
echo $end_result;

Answer 1

Try Using SOUNDEX

Soundex keys have the property that words pronounced similarly produce
the same soundex key, and can thus be used to simplify searches in
databases where you know the pronunciation but not the spelling. This
soundex function returns a string 4 characters long, starting with a
letter.

Here are some questions on SO which may guide you in the right direction:

• How does the Google “Did you mean?” Algorithm work?
• How do you implement a “Did you mean”?

Hope this helps.