Parsing names

[mikemaki]

Does anyone know of an expression I could use in a query to parse a full name field into last name, first name and middle initial?

 

[freakazeud]

re:

Hi,
how are the values seperated (e.g. by space or comma or...)?
You might find this article helpful to get started.
HTH
Good luck

 

[tehNellie]

From experience this depends on how things are done.

I have a routine that takes a "fullname" field, splits it down to it's constituent parts and then attempts to make a "firstname", "initial" and "lastname" field out of it. (or it's big brother that ignores the initial altogether)

The fun beings when you consider that you can have double-barrelled first or surnames.

effectively what mine does it take a name field, split the entire field using space as a separator and then do the following

1) If it's 2 fields split them into firstname and surname
3) if it's 3 fields and the relevant "initial" field is 1 character long split them into Firstname, initial and Surname
4) If it's 3+ fields long, attempt to establish, using tblfirstname and tblsurname what format "anne marie jones" or "Jean Claude Van Damme" should be. If it's never encountered "Anne Marie" as a definite firstname/surname, it prompts you to tell it what the format should be and will use it for that instance only or for every instance that it comes across afterwards.

 

[mikemaki]

Thanks for the help!!

 

[freakazeud]

re:

You're welcome.
Good luck on future projects!