Use of Soundex fields in access

[vonclausowitz]

Hi All,

I have database with names on which I want to use the soundex option.
So I have created two seperate fields for the Lastname and Firstname in
which
I save the Soundex version of a new name I save in the database.
I have the soundex code with the 6 numeric option. So I save for
example in the field
LastnameSE = 600192 and in the FirstnameSE = 545910.

Should these Soundex fields be numeric or text fields?

Marco

[Mike Gramelspacher]

In article <Xn************ *************** *******@127.0.0 .1>,
XX*******@dfent on.com.invalid says...

vo***********@g mail.com wrote in
news:11******** *************@b 28g2000cwb.goog legroups.com:

point taken but what interests me is, is it any better than
Soundex or haven't I
been paying attention?

Well, it depends on your purposes. I would find a traditional
Soundex that also encodes the first letter to be completely useless,
as Soundex itself already casts the net too wide.

I find Soundex2 much more useful in finding duplicates.

The point is you want as few false positives as possible, and
encoding the first letter by the same rules as the others will lead
to the possibility of more false positives.

On the other hand, an algorithm that does something like replace
initial PH with F would make some sense to me.

So, it all depends on the specifics of your particular algorithm,
the exact implementation and the data you're evaluating. Don't
underplay the last of those -- a relatively minor proportion of data
from a language with different pronunciation rules can completely
negate the usefulness of an algorithm that works just fine with a
more homogeneous data set.

I found a name in a church record written 'Pedoch' and was meant to be
'Bettag'. This was an immigrant German church and the priest who wrote
that was Swiss German. Deitch-Mokotoff gives them both the number
735000 for me. Bingo. It seems to me that in a sound system, locking
in the first letter is wrong. Soundex was perhaps the best that could be
thought up at the time, but other alternatives have been developed. But
still, it depends on the situation. Certainly Soundex is much better
known that the others.

Mike GRamelspacher

[David W. Fenton]

Mike Gramelspacher <gr******@psci. netwrote in
news:MP******** *************** *@news.psci.net :

[]

I found a name in a church record written 'Pedoch' and was meant
to be 'Bettag'. This was an immigrant German church and the
priest who wrote that was Swiss German. Deitch-Mokotoff gives
them both the number 735000 for me. Bingo. It seems to me that
in a sound system, locking in the first letter is wrong. Soundex
was perhaps the best that could be thought up at the time, but
other alternatives have been developed. But still, it depends on
the situation. Certainly Soundex is much better known that the
others.

Well, as I said, it depends on the data you're working with and what
you're trying to do. The apps I use Soundex/Soundex2 in would not
benefit from replacing the first letter.

There is a great deal of sense to transcribing Bettag as Pedoch, if
you know how German is pronounced. If you're evaluating German
names, you should account for those facts. If you're not, that
equivalence will not necessarily help you.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/

[Mike Gramelspacher]

In article <Xn************ *************** *******@127.0.0 .1>,
XX*******@dfent on.com.invalid says...

Mike Gramelspacher <gr******@psci. netwrote in
news:MP******** *************** *@news.psci.net :

[]

I found a name in a church record written 'Pedoch' and was meant
to be 'Bettag'. This was an immigrant German church and the
priest who wrote that was Swiss German. Deitch-Mokotoff gives
them both the number 735000 for me. Bingo. It seems to me that
in a sound system, locking in the first letter is wrong. Soundex
was perhaps the best that could be thought up at the time, but
other alternatives have been developed. But still, it depends on
the situation. Certainly Soundex is much better known that the
others.

Well, as I said, it depends on the data you're working with and what
you're trying to do. The apps I use Soundex/Soundex2 in would not
benefit from replacing the first letter.

There is a great deal of sense to transcribing Bettag as Pedoch, if
you know how German is pronounced. If you're evaluating German
names, you should account for those facts. If you're not, that
equivalence will not necessarily help you.

I can agree with all that you say. And of course, the biggest advantage
of Soundex is that it can be computed by pencil and paper by almost
anyone after minimal training. Probably an overwhelming consideration at
the time Soundex came into use. I guess that is my parting statement.

Mike Gramelspacher