how to recognize similar words with difference in spelling

Question

I want to filter out duplicate customer names from a database. A single customer may have more than one entry to the system with the same name but with little difference in

Answer 1

The Double Metaphone algorithm, published in 2000, is a new and improved version of the Soundex algorithm that was patented in 1918.

The article has links to Double Metaphone implementations in many languages.