Split out Last Name, First Name

[Razzman]

I converted an Excel spreadsheet used as a contact database. The author lumped the entire contact's name into one field. My master DB has these split out First Name, Last Name as most people prefer. This has got to be an age old problem. Any scripts floating around?

[LiveOak]

Not too many good solutions. There are so many variations of names. The most basic script (which won't work 20% of the time due to compound names) is:

Set Field (FirstName), LeftWords (Name, 1))

Set Field (LastName), RightWords (Name, 1))

-bd

[ January 15, 2002: Message edited by: LiveOak ]

[danjacoby]

I suggest a slight modification:

Case(WordCount (Name) = 2,

Set Field (FirstName), LeftWords (Name, 1))

Set Field (LastName), RightWords (Name, 1)),

Set Field (FirstName), LeftWords (Name, 2))

Set Field (LastName), RightWords (Name, 1)))

That way, for three-word names, only the last name goes in the last name field. You can actually try several "Case" parameters, depending on what oddities you notice.