Here is my problem. For example I have a table Products that contains a field, Name:
Products
ID | Name | ..
1 | "USB Key 10Go"
2 | "Intel computer"
3 | "12 inches laptop computer"
...
I'm currently implementing a simple search engine (SQL Server and ASP .NET, C#) for an iPhone web-app and I would like to use the SOUNDEX() SQL Server function.
The thing is, I can't directly use SOUNDEX on the Name field. (This would be irrelevant since there are several words in the name.) I would like to apply the SOUNDEX function to each word from the Name field, and then see if any of them matches the researched keyword.
If someone has any clue how to do this, that would be awesome.
Have you looked into the Full-Text Search feature in SQL Server? I know this is not exactly what you asked for. Its just that the SOUNDEX() function is used to find similar SOUNDING names (EX: SMITH and SMYTHE sound the same). In a search engine, however, how a word sounds is less important than the search words themselves. Full-Text Search also lets you use synonyms (allowing you to specify certain words that mean the same thing within your application's context), and have them automatically considered during your search.
Look at these pages for more information about Full Text Search in SQL Server: