BeiderMorseEncoder (Apache Commons Codec 1.10 API)

org.apache.commons.codec.language.bm

## Class BeiderMorseEncoder

- java.lang.Object
- - org.apache.commons.codec.language.bm.BeiderMorseEncoder

- All Implemented Interfaces:
    Encoder, StringEncoder

      public class BeiderMorseEncoder
      extends Object
      implements 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.

  Since:
    1.6
  Version:
    $Id: BeiderMorseEncoder.java 1636703 2014-11-04 19:49:40Z tn $
  See Also:
    Beider-Morse Phonetic Matching, Reference implementation

- - ### Constructor Summary

    Constructors
    Constructor and Description
    `BeiderMorseEncoder()`

  - ### Method Summary

    Methods
    Modifier and Type | Method and Description
    --- | ---
    `Object` | `encode(Object source)` Encodes an "Object" and returns the encoded content as an Object.
    `String` | `encode(String source)` Encodes a String and returns a String.
    `NameType` | `getNameType()` Gets the name type currently in operation.
    `RuleType` | `getRuleType()` Gets the rule type currently in operation.
    `boolean` | `isConcat()` Discovers if multiple possible encodings are concatenated.
    `void` | `setConcat(boolean concat)` Sets how multiple possible phonetic encodings are combined.
    `void` | `setMaxPhonemes(int maxPhonemes)` Sets the number of maximum of phonemes that shall be considered by the engine.
    `void` | `setNameType(NameType nameType)` Sets the type of name.
    `void` | `setRuleType(RuleType ruleType)` Sets the rule type to apply.

    - ### Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

      `clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait`

- - ### Constructor Detail

    - #### BeiderMorseEncoder

          public BeiderMorseEncoder()

  - ### Method Detail

    - #### encode

          public Object encode(Object source)
                        throws EncoderException

      Description copied from interface: `Encoder`
      Encodes an "Object" and returns the encoded content as an Object. The Objects here may just be `byte[]` or `String`s depending on the implementation used.
      Specified by:
        `encode` in interface `Encoder`
      Parameters:
        `source` - An object to encode
      Returns:
        An "encoded" Object
      Throws:
        `EncoderException` - An encoder exception is thrown if the encoder experiences a failure condition during the encoding process.

    - #### encode

          public String encode(String source)
                        throws EncoderException

      Description copied from interface: `StringEncoder`
      Encodes a String and returns a String.
      Specified by:
        `encode` in interface `StringEncoder`
      Parameters:
        `source` - the String to encode
      Returns:
        the encoded String
      Throws:
        `EncoderException` - thrown if there is an error condition during the encoding process.

    - #### getNameType

          public NameType getNameType()

      Gets the name type currently in operation.
      Returns:
        the NameType currently being used

    - #### getRuleType

          public RuleType getRuleType()

      Gets the rule type currently in operation.
      Returns:
        the RuleType currently being used

    - #### isConcat

          public boolean isConcat()

      Discovers if multiple possible encodings are concatenated.
      Returns:
        true if multiple encodings are concatenated, false if just the first one is returned

    - #### setConcat

          public void setConcat(boolean concat)

      Sets how multiple possible phonetic encodings are combined.
      Parameters:
        `concat` - true if multiple encodings are to be combined with a '|', false if just the first one is to be considered

    - #### setNameType

          public void setNameType(NameType nameType)

      Sets the type of name. Use `NameType.GENERIC` unless you specifically want phonetic encodings optimized for Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jewish family names.
      Parameters:
        `nameType` - the NameType in use

    - #### setRuleType

          public void setRuleType(RuleType ruleType)

      Sets the rule type to apply. This will widen or narrow the range of phonetic encodings considered.
      Parameters:
        `ruleType` - `RuleType.APPROX` or `RuleType.EXACT` for approximate or exact phonetic matches

    - #### setMaxPhonemes

          public void setMaxPhonemes(int maxPhonemes)

      Sets the number of maximum of phonemes that shall be considered by the engine.
      Parameters:
        `maxPhonemes` - the maximum number of phonemes returned by the engine
      Since:
        1.7

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