Ideas for creating a “Did you mean XYZ” feature into website

Question

I\'d like to give users the ability to search through a large list of businesses, but still find near matches.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how best to go

Answer 1

You might check out the SQL Server SOUNDEX and DIFFERENCE functions. SOUNDEX converts a sequence of characters (such as a word) into a 4-character code which will be the same for similar-sounding words. DIFFERENCE gives a number which represents how "different" two strings are based on sound.

You could, for example, create a computed column based on the SOUNDEX function and match on that column later. Or you could use DIFFERENCE in a WHERE clause.