PHP :: handle typos in search

Answer 1

I think a regex is not a good approach to check for typos and similar strings. I would consider something like levenshtein - PHP even has a native function for that, levenshtein.

EDIT: Depending on what you're looking for, there are other algorithms too that are also native in PHP: soundex (although considered superseded by newer approaches like Double Metaphone), metaphone, similar_text.

Answer 2

Regex isn't appropriate for this. Your best bet is to create a set of names that group similar names with their spellings. So the name Chris would search for Kris, Chris, Kriss, etc.

A hash_map is probably a good choice. Levenshtein distance could sorta work, but you'll get a lot of false positives: (Camella vs Pamella for example).