Double Metaphone for Python

1.2 · active · verified Wed Apr 15

The `doublemetaphone` library provides a Python wrapper for the C++ implementation of the Double Metaphone phonetic algorithm. This algorithm generates approximate phonetic representations (codes) for words, useful for matching names or words with similar pronunciations despite different spellings. The current version is 1.2. Releases appear to be infrequent, with significant gaps between updates.

Warnings

gotcha The `doublemetaphone` function returns a tuple of two strings (primary and secondary codes), not a single string. Ensure your code handles both return values, even if one is an empty string.
Fix: Always unpack the return value into two variables: `primary, secondary = doublemetaphone('word')`.
breaking Older versions (primarily Python 2) might have raised `TypeError` if non-unicode strings were passed. Python 3 strings are Unicode by default, but be mindful of encoding if dealing with byte strings or legacy data.
Fix: Ensure all input strings are Python 3 `str` objects (Unicode). Explicitly decode byte strings if necessary (e.g., `my_bytes.decode('utf-8')`).
gotcha There are multiple Python packages implementing or wrapping Metaphone/Double Metaphone algorithms (e.g., `metaphone`, `phonetics`, `doublemetaphone`). Ensure you install and import the correct package for the C++ wrapper implementation (`doublemetaphone`).
Fix: Verify the `pip install` command and `import` statement match the `doublemetaphone` package specifically. Check the PyPI project description to confirm it's the C++ wrapper.
gotcha Installation might require a C++ compiler if a pre-built wheel is not available for your specific Python version and operating system. This is common for Python wrappers around C/C++ libraries.
Fix: If `pip install` fails with compilation errors, install a C++ compiler (e.g., build-essential on Linux, Xcode Command Line Tools on macOS, Visual C++ Build Tools on Windows) or consider using a pre-packaged environment (e.g., Docker).

Install

pip install doublemetaphone Install with pip

Imports

doublemetaphone

wrong:

import doublemetaphone; doublemetaphone.doublemetaphone.doublemetaphone('word')

correct:

from doublemetaphone import doublemetaphone

The primary function is directly exposed from the top-level package, not nested further.

Quickstart

Generate Double Metaphone codes for a word and compare them. The function returns a tuple of (primary_code, secondary_code).

from doublemetaphone import doublemetaphone

word1 = "Smith"
word2 = "Schmidt"

primary1, secondary1 = doublemetaphone(word1)
primary2, secondary2 = doublemetaphone(word2)

print(f"'{word1}': Primary='{primary1}', Secondary='{secondary1}'")
print(f"'{word2}': Primary='{primary2}', Secondary='{secondary2}'")

# Double Metaphone often returns two codes to account for phonetic ambiguities.
# For example, 'Smith' and 'Schmidt' share a secondary code.
if primary1 == primary2 or secondary1 == secondary2 or primary1 == secondary2 or primary2 == secondary1:
    print(f"'{word1}' and '{word2}' are phonetically similar.")

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