Purpose
SOUNDEX() returns the phonetic representation of a string. You can use this function to compare English words that have similar pronunciations but different spellings.
Syntax
SOUNDEX(char)
Parameters
char specifies the string to convert.
Return type
The return type is a string.
Examples
The following example returns the phonetic representation of OceanBase:
obclient> SELECT SOUNDEX('OceanBase') AS result FROM DUAL;
+--------+
| RESULT |
+--------+
| O251 |
+--------+
1 row in set