There are two functions in SQL Server that are used to identify whether the two strings are pronounced similarly or not.

They are

• SOUNDEX() - This function takes a string as parameter and returns a four-character code. This code is called as Soundex. When this code is calculated it basically ignores the vowels (A, E, I, O, U), H, W, and Y unless they are the first letter of the string.

• DIFFERENCE() - This function takes two strings as parameter and returns a integer value from 1 to 4. This function internally calculates the SOUNDEX code for each of the string and find the difference between the two SOUNDEX code.

SELECT 
SOUNDEX ('SQL') AS SQL, 
SOUNDEX ('Sequel') AS Sequel,
DIFFERENCE('SQL', 'Sequel') AS Similarity;  

SELECT 
SOUNDEX ('Michael Jackson') AS Michael_Jackson, 
SOUNDEX ('Mitchel Johnson') AS Mitchel_Johnson,
DIFFERENCE('Michael Jackson','Mitchel Johnson') AS Similarity;  

SELECT 
SOUNDEX ('Ramesh') AS Ramesh, 
SOUNDEX ('Suresh') AS Suresh,
DIFFERENCE('Ramesh','Suresh') AS Similarity;  

SELECT 
SOUNDEX ('Tamil') AS Tamil, 
SOUNDEX ('Malayalam') AS Malayalam,
DIFFERENCE('Tamil','Malayalam') AS Similarity;

The output of the DIFFERENCE function

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