def soundex(name, len=4):
""" soundex module conforming to Knuth's algorithm
implementation 2000-12-24 by Gregory Jorgensen
public domain
"""
# digits holds the soundex values for the alphabet
digits = '01230120022455012623010202'
sndx = ''
fc = ''
# translate alpha chars in name to soundex digits
for c in name.upper():
if c.isalpha():
if not fc: fc = c # remember first letter
d = digits[ord(c)-ord('A')]
# duplicate consecutive soundex digits are skipped
if not sndx or (d != sndx[-1]):
sndx += d
# replace first digit with first alpha character
sndx = fc + sndx[1:]
# remove all 0s from the soundex code
sndx = sndx.replace('0','')
# return soundex code padded to len characters
return (sndx + (len * '0'))[:len]
