http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-codec/: The Apache Commons Codec package contains simple encoder and decoders for various formats such as Base64 and Hexadecimal. In addition to these widely used encoders and decoders, the codec package also maintains a collection of phonetic encoding utilities. (The Apache Software Foundation)
  • Christopher O'Brien
  • Martin Redington
  • Jeffery Dever
  • Steve Zimmermann
  • Benjamin Walstrum
  • Oleg Kalnichevski
  • Dave Dribin
  • Alex Karasulu
  • Matthew Inger
  • Jochen Wiedmann
  • Sebastian Bazley
  • Matthew Pocock
  • Colm Rice 
/*
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package org.apache.commons.codec.language.bm;

import org.apache.commons.codec.EncoderException;
import org.apache.commons.codec.StringEncoder;


Encodes strings into their Beider-Morse phonetic encoding.


Beider-Morse phonetic encodings are optimised for family names. However, they may be useful for a wide range of
words.

 This encoder is intentionally mutable to allow dynamic configuration through bean properties. As such, it is mutable, and may not be thread-safe. If you require a guaranteed thread-safe encoding then use PhoneticEngine directly. 

Encoding overview


Beider-Morse phonetic encodings is a multi-step process. Firstly, a table of rules is consulted to guess what
language the word comes from. For example, if it ends in "ault" then it infers that the word is French.
Next, the word is translated into a phonetic representation using a language-specific phonetics table. Some runs of
letters can be pronounced in multiple ways, and a single run of letters may be potentially broken up into phonemes at
different places, so this stage results in a set of possible language-specific phonetic representations. Lastly, this
language-specific phonetic representation is processed by a table of rules that re-writes it phonetically taking into
account systematic pronunciation differences between languages, to move it towards a pan-indo-european phonetic
representation. Again, sometimes there are multiple ways this could be done and sometimes things that can be
pronounced in several ways in the source language have only one way to represent them in this average phonetic
language, so the result is again a set of phonetic spellings.


Some names are treated as having multiple parts. This can be due to two things. Firstly, they may be hyphenated. In
this case, each individual hyphenated word is encoded, and then these are combined end-to-end for the final encoding.
Secondly, some names have standard prefixes, for example, "Mac/Mc" in Scottish (English) names. As
sometimes it is ambiguous whether the prefix is intended or is an accident of the spelling, the word is encoded once
with the prefix and once without it. The resulting encoding contains one and then the other result.


Encoding format


Individual phonetic spellings of an input word are represented in upper- and lower-case roman characters. Where there
are multiple possible phonetic representations, these are joined with a pipe (|) character. If multiple
hyphenated words where found, or if the word may contain a name prefix, each encoded word is placed in elipses and
these blocks are then joined with hyphens. For example, "d'ortley" has a possible prefix. The form
without prefix encodes to "ortlaj|ortlej", while the form with prefix encodes to "
dortlaj|dortlej". Thus, the full, combined encoding is "(ortlaj|ortlej)-(dortlaj|dortlej)".


The encoded forms are often quite a bit longer than the input strings. This is because a single input may have many
potential phonetic interpretations. For example, "Renault" encodes to "
rYnDlt|rYnalt|rYnult|rinDlt|rinalt|rinult". The APPROX rules will tend to produce larger
encodings as they consider a wider range of possible, approximate phonetic interpretations of the original word.
Down-stream applications may wish to further process the encoding for indexing or lookup purposes, for example, by
splitting on pipe (|) and indexing under each of these alternatives.


Note: this version of the Beider-Morse encoding is equivalent with v3.4 of the reference implementation.



See Also:
Since:1.6
Version:$Id$
/**
 * Encodes strings into their Beider-Morse phonetic encoding.
 * <p>
 * Beider-Morse phonetic encodings are optimised for family names. However, they may be useful for a wide range of
 * words.
 * <p>
 * This encoder is intentionally mutable to allow dynamic configuration through bean properties. As such, it is mutable,
 * and may not be thread-safe. If you require a guaranteed thread-safe encoding then use {@link PhoneticEngine}
 * directly.
 * <p>
 * <b>Encoding overview</b>
 * <p>
 * Beider-Morse phonetic encodings is a multi-step process. Firstly, a table of rules is consulted to guess what
 * language the word comes from. For example, if it ends in "<code>ault</code>" then it infers that the word is French.
 * Next, the word is translated into a phonetic representation using a language-specific phonetics table. Some runs of
 * letters can be pronounced in multiple ways, and a single run of letters may be potentially broken up into phonemes at
 * different places, so this stage results in a set of possible language-specific phonetic representations. Lastly, this
 * language-specific phonetic representation is processed by a table of rules that re-writes it phonetically taking into
 * account systematic pronunciation differences between languages, to move it towards a pan-indo-european phonetic
 * representation. Again, sometimes there are multiple ways this could be done and sometimes things that can be
 * pronounced in several ways in the source language have only one way to represent them in this average phonetic
 * language, so the result is again a set of phonetic spellings.
 * <p>
 * Some names are treated as having multiple parts. This can be due to two things. Firstly, they may be hyphenated. In
 * this case, each individual hyphenated word is encoded, and then these are combined end-to-end for the final encoding.
 * Secondly, some names have standard prefixes, for example, "<code>Mac/Mc</code>" in Scottish (English) names. As
 * sometimes it is ambiguous whether the prefix is intended or is an accident of the spelling, the word is encoded once
 * with the prefix and once without it. The resulting encoding contains one and then the other result.
 * <p>
 * <b>Encoding format</b>
 * <p>
 * Individual phonetic spellings of an input word are represented in upper- and lower-case roman characters. Where there
 * are multiple possible phonetic representations, these are joined with a pipe (<code>|</code>) character. If multiple
 * hyphenated words where found, or if the word may contain a name prefix, each encoded word is placed in elipses and
 * these blocks are then joined with hyphens. For example, "<code>d'ortley</code>" has a possible prefix. The form
 * without prefix encodes to "<code>ortlaj|ortlej</code>", while the form with prefix encodes to "
 * <code>dortlaj|dortlej</code>". Thus, the full, combined encoding is "<code>(ortlaj|ortlej)-(dortlaj|dortlej)</code>".
 * <p>
 * The encoded forms are often quite a bit longer than the input strings. This is because a single input may have many
 * potential phonetic interpretations. For example, "<code>Renault</code>" encodes to "
 * <code>rYnDlt|rYnalt|rYnult|rinDlt|rinalt|rinult</code>". The <code>APPROX</code> rules will tend to produce larger
 * encodings as they consider a wider range of possible, approximate phonetic interpretations of the original word.
 * Down-stream applications may wish to further process the encoding for indexing or lookup purposes, for example, by
 * splitting on pipe (<code>|</code>) and indexing under each of these alternatives.
 * <p>
 * <b>Note</b>: this version of the Beider-Morse encoding is equivalent with v3.4 of the reference implementation.
 * </p>
 * @see <a href="http://stevemorse.org/phonetics/bmpm.htm">Beider-Morse Phonetic Matching</a>
 * @see <a href="http://stevemorse.org/phoneticinfo.htm">Reference implementation</a>
 *
 * <p>
 * This class is Not ThreadSafe
 * </p>
 * @since 1.6
 * @version $Id$
 */
public class BeiderMorseEncoder implements StringEncoder {
    // Implementation note: This class is a spring-friendly facade to PhoneticEngine. It allows read/write configuration
    // of an immutable PhoneticEngine instance that will be delegated to for the actual encoding.

    // a cached object
    private PhoneticEngine engine = new PhoneticEngine(NameType.GENERIC, RuleType.APPROX, true);

    @Override
    public Object encode(final Object source) throws EncoderException {
        if (!(source instanceof String)) {
            throw new EncoderException("BeiderMorseEncoder encode parameter is not of type String");
        }
        return encode((String) source);
    }

    @Override
    public String encode(final String source) throws EncoderException {
        if (source == null) {
            return null;
        }
        return this.engine.encode(source);
    }

    
Gets the name type currently in operation.

Returns:the NameType currently being used
/**
     * Gets the name type currently in operation.
     *
     * @return the NameType currently being used
     */
    public NameType getNameType() {
        return this.engine.getNameType();
    }

    
Gets the rule type currently in operation.

Returns:the RuleType currently being used
/**
     * Gets the rule type currently in operation.
     *
     * @return the RuleType currently being used
     */
    public RuleType getRuleType() {
        return this.engine.getRuleType();
    }

    
Discovers if multiple possible encodings are concatenated.

Returns:true if multiple encodings are concatenated, false if just the first one is returned
/**
     * Discovers if multiple possible encodings are concatenated.
     *
     * @return true if multiple encodings are concatenated, false if just the first one is returned
     */
    public boolean isConcat() {
        return this.engine.isConcat();
    }

    
Sets how multiple possible phonetic encodings are combined.

Params:
  • concat – 
           true if multiple encodings are to be combined with a '|', false if just the first one is
           to be considered
/**
     * Sets how multiple possible phonetic encodings are combined.
     *
     * @param concat
     *            true if multiple encodings are to be combined with a '|', false if just the first one is
     *            to be considered
     */
    public void setConcat(final boolean concat) {
        this.engine = new PhoneticEngine(this.engine.getNameType(),
                                         this.engine.getRuleType(),
                                         concat,
                                         this.engine.getMaxPhonemes());
    }

    
Sets the type of name. Use NameType.GENERIC unless you specifically want phonetic encodings optimized for Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jewish family names. 
Params:
  • nameType – 
           the NameType in use
/**
     * Sets the type of name. Use {@link NameType#GENERIC} unless you specifically want phonetic encodings
     * optimized for Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jewish family names.
     *
     * @param nameType
     *            the NameType in use
     */
    public void setNameType(final NameType nameType) {
        this.engine = new PhoneticEngine(nameType,
                                         this.engine.getRuleType(),
                                         this.engine.isConcat(),
                                         this.engine.getMaxPhonemes());
    }

    
Sets the rule type to apply. This will widen or narrow the range of phonetic encodings considered.

Params:
/**
     * Sets the rule type to apply. This will widen or narrow the range of phonetic encodings considered.
     *
     * @param ruleType
     *            {@link RuleType#APPROX} or {@link RuleType#EXACT} for approximate or exact phonetic matches
     */
    public void setRuleType(final RuleType ruleType) {
        this.engine = new PhoneticEngine(this.engine.getNameType(),
                                         ruleType,
                                         this.engine.isConcat(),
                                         this.engine.getMaxPhonemes());
    }

    
Sets the number of maximum of phonemes that shall be considered by the engine.

Params:
  • maxPhonemes – 
           the maximum number of phonemes returned by the engine
Since:1.7
/**
     * Sets the number of maximum of phonemes that shall be considered by the engine.
     *
     * @param maxPhonemes
     *            the maximum number of phonemes returned by the engine
     * @since 1.7
     */
    public void setMaxPhonemes(final int maxPhonemes) {
        this.engine = new PhoneticEngine(this.engine.getNameType(),
                                         this.engine.getRuleType(),
                                         this.engine.isConcat(),
                                         maxPhonemes);
    }

}