Strings and Things - Java - page 122

}

}

}

}
iif ( res . length () == 0 )
return return null null ;

for for ( int int i = res . length (); i < 4 ; i ++)

res . append ( '0' );
return return res . toString ();

}

}

There are apparently some nuances of the full Soundex algorithm that are not implemented
by this application. A more complete test using JUnit (see Avoiding the Need for Debuggers
with Unit Testing ) is also online as SoundexTest.java , in the src/tests/java/strings directory.
The dedicated reader may use this to provoke failures of such nuances, and send a pull re-
quest with updated versions of the test and the code.

See Also

The Levenshtein string edit distance algorithm can be used for doing approximate string
comparisons in a different fashion. You can find this in Apache Commons StringUtils . I
show a non-Java (Perl) implementation of this alrorithm in Marrying Java and Perl .

[ 12 ] StringBuilder was added in Java 5. It is functionally equivalent to the older StringBuffer . We
will delve into the details in Putting Strings Together with StringBuilder .
[ 13 ] Unless, perhaps, you're as slow at updating personal records as I am.
[ 14 ] Indeed, there are so many characters in Unicode that a fad has emerged of displaying your name
upside down using characters that approximate upside-down versions of the Latin alphabet. Do a web
search for “upside down unicode.”
[ 15 ] With the caveat that it doesn't handle different delimiters; this could be added using GetOpt and
constructing the pattern around the delimiter.
[ 16 ] In Unix terminology, a “daemon” is a server. The old English word has nothing to do with satanic
“demons” but refers to a helper or assistant. Derwin Daemon was actually a character in Susannah
Coleman's “Source Wars” online comic strip, which long ago was online at a now-departed site called
darby.daemonnews.org .