Fonetica implements the BuscaBR algorithm to match misspelled or ambiguous names at Brazil.

One day I had to perform a phonetic search on a people database using the Soundex alghoritm but didn't work for names at Brazil like "Wagner Batista" and "Vagner Baptista".

Then Google suggested me to read the BuscaBR algorithm.

require 'fonetica'

'wagner batista'.foneticalize #=> "VM BT"
'vagner baptista'.foneticalize #=> "VM BT"

You can use the fonetica to search on ActiveRecord like this:

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  before_save :foneticalize

  def self.search(name)
    where(arel_table[:fonetica].matches("#{name.foneticalize}%"))
  end

  protected

  def foneticalize
    self.fonetica = name.foneticalize
  end
end

If you want to match any part, you should change scope to:

def self.search
  where(arel_table[:fonetica].matches("%#{name.foneticalize}%"))
end

Remember to add a index on fonetica column:

class AddFoneticaToPeople < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    add_column :people, :fonetica, :string
    add_index :people, :fonetica
  end
end

Please ensure that you provide appropriate test coverage and ensure the documentation is up-to-date. Bonus points if you perform your changes in a clean topic branch rather than master, and if you create a pull request for your changes to be discussed and reviewed.

Please also keep your commits atomic so that they are more likely to apply cleanly. That means that each commit should contain the smallest possible logical change. Don't commit two features at once, don't update the gemspec at the same time you add a feature, don't fix a whole bunch of whitespace in a file at the same time you change a few lines, etc, etc.

$ git clone https://github.com/sobrinho/fonetica
$ cd fonetica
$ bundle install
$ rake test

Fonetica is hosted on Github: https://github.com/sobrinho/fonetica, where your contributions, forkings, comments and feedback are greatly welcomed.

Copyright (c) 2010-2014 Gabriel Sobrinho, released under the MIT license.