A soundex is a coded identification of data values that Discovery Center has analyzed as "sounding" similar. Certain data values in an attribute may sound like other values in the same attribute. The analysis groups data values with similar sounds and identifies them as a soundex.
Soundexes allow you to examine groups of values that might be related or the same, but because the spelling or data entry conventions are different, it may not be obvious that they represent the same person, company, city, and so on. To determine if there is a problem, you must examine these values. Soundexes help find duplicated data and misspellings, and give you the information you need to make decisions about data entry standards.
Soundex Codes
The soundex analysis maps characters (in a data value) to a short, four-character identifier, called a soundex code. You use this code to identify which data values are associated as sound-alikes. This analysis is particularly useful for grouping short strings, such as first or last names. In certain cases, examining soundexes helps to identify data that is incorrect and flag a data entry problem. A soundex can also help to identify common record types.