PHP/MySQL include alternative spellings in search - php

Question

My PHP search form pulls data from a MySQL database. I am expecting users to sometimes fill the search box with a search term that has a slightly different spelling than my database entry, like "theater" instead of "theater." There are just a few of these that I expect to be very common, so I added an additional row to my database table that contains those alternative spellings, and my PHP search form searches this row of the database as well. It works well, but this will cause a lot of additional work when maintaining the database, so I'm wondering if there's something I can do within my PHP code to search for those predefined alternative spellings (I don't mean to give the user suggested spellings, but I want the search form to return, for example, entries that have "theatre" in it even though the user typed "theater." Is there an easy way to do this (without a search server)?

Answer 1

Yes you can easily do this work without database search,you need correct spellings so I suggest you do this work from PHP coding instead of databases search...
You can do this work with PHP Pspell module, PHP Pspell work like android keyboard whenever use type wrong spelling in search box it automatically check that spelling from dictionary and make it correct like if user type "theater" then it automatically correct it with "theatre".
before starting programming you have to check is Pspell module installed or not
<?php
$config_dic= pspell_config_create ('en');
Here is a small function to help you understand how Pspell works:
<?php
function orthograph($string)
{
// Suggests possible words in case of misspelling
$config_dic = pspell_config_create('en');
// Ignore words under 3 characters
pspell_config_ignore($config_dic, 3);
// Configure the dictionary
pspell_config_mode($config_dic, PSPELL_FAST);
$dictionary = pspell_new_config($config_dic);
// To find out if a replacement has been suggested
$replacement_suggest = false;
$string = explode('', trim(str_replace(',', ' ', $string)));
foreach ($string as $key => $value) {
if(!pspell_check($dictionary, $value)) {
$suggestion = pspell_suggest($dictionary, $value);
// Suggestions are case sensitive. Grab the first one.
if(strtolower($suggestion [0]) != strtolower($value)) {
$string [$key] = $suggestion [0];
$replacement_suggest = true;
}
}
}
if ($replacement_suggest) {
// We have a suggestion, so we return to the data.
return implode('', $string);
} else {
return null;
}
}
To use this function, it is sufficient to pass to it a string parameter:
<?php
$search = $_POST['input'];
$suggestion_spell = orthograph($search);
if ($suggestion_spell) {
echo "Try with this spelling : $suggestion_spell";
}
$dict = pspell_new ("en");
if (!pspell_check ($dict, "lappin")) {
$suggestions = pspell_suggest ($dict, "lappin");
foreach ($suggestions as $suggestion) {
echo "Did you mean: $suggestion?<br />";
}
}
// Suggests possible words in case of misspelling
$config_dic = pspell_config_create('en');
// Ignore words under 3 characters
pspell_config_ignore($config_dic, 3);
// Configure the dictionary
pspell_config_mode($config_dic, PSPELL_FAST);
$dictionary = pspell_new_config($config_dic);
$config_dic = pspell_config_create ('en');
pspell_config_personal($config_dic, 'path / perso.pws');
pspell_config_ignore($config_dic , 2);
pspell_config_mode($config_dic, PSPELL_FAST);
$dic = pspell_new_config($config_dic);
pspell_add_to_personal($dic, "word");
pspell_save_wordlist($dic);
?>