Thread

1. Extension - multilingual_fuzzy_match : Multilingual phonetic matching extension for PostgreSQL

   Blessy Thomas <blessy456bthomas@gmail.com> — 2026-03-02T07:25:26Z

   Hello PostgreSQL Community,
   
   I would like to introduce a PostgreSQL extension called
   multilingual_fuzzy_match. This extension enables multilingual name
   normalization, transliteration, and fuzzy phonetic matching directly inside
   PostgreSQL at query time.
   
   1. What Problem It Solves:
   In multilingual datasets (especially Indian language datasets), the same
   name may appear in:
   - Different scripts
   - Different transliterations
   - Slight spelling variations
   - Multiple languages
   
   For example:
   राम ≈ Raam ≈ رَام ≈ ராம்
   Traditional equality or LIKE queries fail in such cases. Even trigram
   matching doesn’t fully address cross-script phonetic similarity.
   
   2. What This Extension Does
   
   - Detects the script of the input text
   - Performs transliteration and normalization
   - Generates a phonetic key
   - Uses Levenshtein distance (via python-Levenshtein)
   - Returns similarity-scored results
   All of this happens inside PostgreSQL using PL/Python (plpython3u).
   
   3. Key Features
   - No schema changes required
   - Query-level matching
   - Supports 11 major Indian scripts:
   Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada, Odia,
   Gujarati, Punjabi
   - Works on existing tables
   
   4. Requirements
   - PostgreSQL 17 (compiled with Python support)
   - Python 3.12+
   - plpython3u
   - Python packages:
      pip install indic-transliteration python-Levenshtein
   
   5. Example Usage
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   postgres=#
   SELECT * FROM fuzzy_match('names_native_dist', 'name', 'Rahul')
   WHERE distance <= 1;
    id | name  | translit | normalized | fuzzy | distance
   ----+-------+----------+------------+-------+----------
     1 | राहुल  | rAhula   | rahul      | rahul |        0
     2 | রাহুল  | rAhula   | rahul      | rahul |        0
     4 | ರಾಹುಲ್ | rAhul    | rahul      | rahul |        0
     5 | Rahul | Rahul    | rahul      | rahul |        0
   (4 rows)
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
   6. Feedback Requested
   
   I would really appreciate feedback from the community on:
   - Extension design approach
   - Performance considerations
   - Suitability for PGXN submission
   I would love suggestions, improvements, and any guidance on making this
   production-ready. I’m sharing this not just as a project, but as a starting
   point for discussion about multilingual data handling inside PostgreSQL.
   
   Looking forward to your thoughts and critiques.
   Thank you!
   
   Regards
   Blessy Thomas
   

2. Re: Extension - multilingual_fuzzy_match : Multilingual phonetic matching extension for PostgreSQL

   Andreas Karlsson <andreas@proxel.se> — 2026-03-03T05:18:27Z

   On 3/2/26 8:25 AM, Blessy Thomas wrote:
   > 6. Feedback Requested
   > 
   > I would really appreciate feedback from the community on:
   > - Extension design approach
   > - Performance considerations
   > - Suitability for PGXN submission
   > I would love suggestions, improvements, and any guidance on making this 
   > production-ready. I’m sharing this not just as a project, but as a 
   > starting point for discussion about multilingual data handling inside 
   > PostgreSQL.
   > 
   > Looking forward to your thoughts and critiques.
   
   Hi,
   
   For this kind of extension I think the main thing to do is to build a 
   proof of concept and see if there is any interest. Plus here on -hackers 
   is not the right place to ask anyway since this list is mostly concerned 
   with hacking on PostgreSQL and not concerned with writing extensions.
   
   There are other places where actual PostgreSQL users hang out, e.g. the 
   -general mailing list, but in those places I would still recommend 
   showing up with a PoC extension. People are much more interested in 
   giving feedback if there is some code rather than giving feedback to a 
   plan for something which may not even get built.
   
   Andreas
   
   
   
   
   

3. Fwd: Extension - multilingual_fuzzy_match : Multilingual phonetic matching extension for PostgreSQL

   Blessy Thomas <blessy456bthomas@gmail.com> — 2026-03-23T05:52:06Z

   ---------- Forwarded message ---------
   From: Blessy Thomas <blessy456bthomas@gmail.com>
   Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2026 at 12:55
   Subject: Extension - multilingual_fuzzy_match : Multilingual phonetic
   matching extension for PostgreSQL
   
   
   Hello PostgreSQL Community,
   
   I would like to introduce a PostgreSQL extension called
   multilingual_fuzzy_match. This extension enables multilingual name
   normalization, transliteration, and fuzzy phonetic matching directly inside
   PostgreSQL at query time.
   
   1. What Problem It Solves:
   In multilingual datasets (especially Indian language datasets), the same
   name may appear in:
   - Different scripts
   - Different transliterations
   - Slight spelling variations
   - Multiple languages
   
   For example:
   राम ≈ Raam ≈ رَام ≈ ராம்
   Traditional equality or LIKE queries fail in such cases. Even trigram
   matching doesn’t fully address cross-script phonetic similarity.
   
   2. What This Extension Does
   
   - Detects the script of the input text
   - Performs transliteration and normalization
   - Generates a phonetic key
   - Uses Levenshtein distance (via python-Levenshtein)
   - Returns similarity-scored results
   All of this happens inside PostgreSQL using PL/Python (plpython3u).
   
   3. Key Features
   - No schema changes required
   - Query-level matching
   - Supports 11 major Indian scripts:
   Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada, Odia,
   Gujarati, Punjabi
   - Works on existing tables
   
   4. Requirements
   - PostgreSQL 17 (compiled with Python support)
   - Python 3.12+
   - plpython3u
   - Python packages:
      pip install indic-transliteration python-Levenshtein
   
   5. Example Usage
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   postgres=#
   SELECT * FROM fuzzy_match('names_native_dist', 'name', 'Rahul')
   WHERE distance <= 1;
    id | name  | translit | normalized | fuzzy | distance
   ----+-------+----------+------------+-------+----------
     1 | राहुल  | rAhula   | rahul      | rahul |        0
     2 | রাহুল  | rAhula   | rahul      | rahul |        0
     4 | ರಾಹುಲ್ | rAhul    | rahul      | rahul |        0
     5 | Rahul | Rahul    | rahul      | rahul |        0
   (4 rows)
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
   6. Feedback Requested
   
   I would really appreciate feedback from the community on:
   - Extension design approach
   - Performance considerations
   - Suitability for PGXN submission
   I would love suggestions, improvements, and any guidance on making this
   production-ready. I’m sharing this not just as a project, but as a starting
   point for discussion about multilingual data handling inside PostgreSQL.
   
   Looking forward to your thoughts and critiques.
   Thank you!
   
   Regards
   Blessy Thomas
   

4. Re: Extension - multilingual_fuzzy_match : Multilingual phonetic matching extension for PostgreSQL

   lakshmi <lakshmigcdac@gmail.com> — 2026-04-13T06:57:08Z

   Hello all,
   
   I hope this mail finds you well.
   
   I would like to inform you that as my friend has moved forward with another
   offer I will be taking over her work related to the
   multilingual_fuzzy_match extension going forward. My name is Lakshmi, and I
   will be handling this work from now on. Please feel free to reach out to me
   for any queries, discussions or updates.
   
   Looking forward to working with you all.
   
   Thank you.
   
   Regards,
   Lakshmi
   
   On Mon, Apr 13, 2026 at 11:22 AM Blessy Thomas <blessy456bthomas@gmail.com>
   wrote:
   
   >
   >
   > ---------- Forwarded message ---------
   > From: Blessy Thomas <blessy456bthomas@gmail.com>
   > Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2026 at 12:55
   > Subject: Extension - multilingual_fuzzy_match : Multilingual phonetic
   > matching extension for PostgreSQL
   >
   >
   > Hello PostgreSQL Community,
   >
   > I would like to introduce a PostgreSQL extension called
   > multilingual_fuzzy_match. This extension enables multilingual name
   > normalization, transliteration, and fuzzy phonetic matching directly inside
   > PostgreSQL at query time.
   >
   > 1. What Problem It Solves:
   > In multilingual datasets (especially Indian language datasets), the same
   > name may appear in:
   > - Different scripts
   > - Different transliterations
   > - Slight spelling variations
   > - Multiple languages
   >
   > For example:
   > राम ≈ Raam ≈ رَام ≈ ராம்
   > Traditional equality or LIKE queries fail in such cases. Even trigram
   > matching doesn’t fully address cross-script phonetic similarity.
   >
   > 2. What This Extension Does
   >
   > - Detects the script of the input text
   > - Performs transliteration and normalization
   > - Generates a phonetic key
   > - Uses Levenshtein distance (via python-Levenshtein)
   > - Returns similarity-scored results
   > All of this happens inside PostgreSQL using PL/Python (plpython3u).
   >
   > 3. Key Features
   > - No schema changes required
   > - Query-level matching
   > - Supports 11 major Indian scripts:
   > Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada, Odia,
   > Gujarati, Punjabi
   > - Works on existing tables
   >
   > 4. Requirements
   > - PostgreSQL 17 (compiled with Python support)
   > - Python 3.12+
   > - plpython3u
   > - Python packages:
   >    pip install indic-transliteration python-Levenshtein
   >
   > 5. Example Usage
   >
   > -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   > postgres=#
   > SELECT * FROM fuzzy_match('names_native_dist', 'name', 'Rahul')
   > WHERE distance <= 1;
   >  id | name  | translit | normalized | fuzzy | distance
   > ----+-------+----------+------------+-------+----------
   >   1 | राहुल  | rAhula   | rahul      | rahul |        0
   >   2 | রাহুল  | rAhula   | rahul      | rahul |        0
   >   4 | ರಾಹುಲ್ | rAhul    | rahul      | rahul |        0
   >   5 | Rahul | Rahul    | rahul      | rahul |        0
   > (4 rows)
   >
   > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   >
   > 6. Feedback Requested
   >
   > I would really appreciate feedback from the community on:
   > - Extension design approach
   > - Performance considerations
   > - Suitability for PGXN submission
   > I would love suggestions, improvements, and any guidance on making this
   > production-ready. I’m sharing this not just as a project, but as a starting
   > point for discussion about multilingual data handling inside PostgreSQL.
   >
   > Looking forward to your thoughts and critiques.
   > Thank you!
   >
   > Regards
   > Blessy Thomas
   >