Splitting up a name field

[cmack]

I have a file that I need to import into my database on a semi-regular basis. It contains a name field that has a

FirstName MiddleInitial LastName

There is a period after the Middle initial when there is a middle initial. Sometimes the whole middle name is there and sometimes there is nothing but the first and last name.

Soooo what I want to do is create a calculation that will grab the last name. I would like it to grab the entire last name. Sometimes there is a hyphen in the middle and when there is I only get part of the name.

I am not very good with calculations so hopefully someone can help. I tried searching for topics but I could not find what I was looking for.

Thank you in advance.

Cmack

[Ender]

An automated process is likely to incorrectly break up some names because names don't always conform to a standard format.

You might search the forums about this, as this question comes up from time to time.

[cmack]

I tried that but I am must be using the wrong search terms.

[Lee Smith]

Hi Cmack,

The need to split names out of one field, or parse text has come up hundreds of times.

The keywords would be something like

+Extract +Last +name

+Parse +Name

Use the Pluses as shown, and it narrows the search to those posts where only the search criteria appear.

However, I think you will find what you need at this Link

HTH

Lee

[Fenton]

I would agree with Ender. There is no perfect calculation, because the variety of human names is just about endless. By that I mostly mean the exceptions, where either the first name has 2 words, or the last name does. Ignoring the first (which is rare in English), it is possible to trap for common combinations of the last name. I'm attaching the best file I've seen for this. It's an old file by Lynn Bradford. It uses repetitions to store the exceptions, to keep everything stored. You could also do this more relationally, by scripting the parse; I believe I'd do that, just to avoid the limitations and hassle of the repetitions. But it would be basically the same idea; loop through the exceptions to see if you have one.

NameParseLynn.fp7.zip

[cmack]

Thank you both for replies. I am glad my confusion was not just me but that it was indeed a more complicated thing to do then I thought.

I will take a look at the file Fenton. I may just do as you suggest however with a relationship.

Lee thank you for the information on how to do the search. I was not using the + and the terms I was using were bringing up tons of posts.

Edited August 28, 2007 by Guest