fuzzy search

[Robert Brenstein]

>  > I need to implement fuzzy searching option. I have database with
>>  course information. When a new one is being added, I need to check
>>  whether a course with a SIMILAR name is already there. Does anyone
>>  has experience with implementing this type of searches to give me
>>  tips or references?
>
>This is probably a very difficult task. You could start with just 
>searching for
>a match between any single word in the course title entered matches any single
>word in the existing course titles. For example, let's say there's already
>"Anthropology of Urban Life in New York City 1900 to 1920". Then you 
>come along
>with "History of New York". Try to match "history" then "new" then 
>"york" and it
>will match. Same with any course that has "anthropology" in it. Etc.
>
>Otherwise you would need to get into word meanings and synonyms and such for
>every possible word, and that would be pretty tough.
>
>Another option would be to have a separate field that lists key words or a
>description of the course. Then the new course title could be compared to that
>field as well, or the new course could have its own description, and the
>descriptions' words could be searched against each other and a ranked result
>could be returned showing the likelihood that the course is the same.
>
>-SR
>
>Scott Runkel

Actually, I don't need this to be too sophisticated. What I am after 
is catching users entering 'StatisticsI' (no space due to typo) 
whereas there is already a course 'Statistics I'. At most I'd like to 
find "applied statistics" when someone enters "applications of 
statistics". A keywords field could get me there at least partially I 
think. Useful idea.

Robert