Databases
StackOverflow2013
Postsdbo
POSimple way to parse a person's name into its component parts?
 

Note that there are some explanatory texts on larger screens.

plurals
  1. POSimple way to parse a person's name into its component parts?
    primarykey
    data
    text
    <p>A lot of contact management programs do this - you type in a name (<em>e.g.</em>, "John W. Smith") and it automatically breaks it up internally into:</p> <p><strong>First name:</strong> John<br> <strong>Middle name:</strong> W.<br> <strong>Last name:</strong> Smith</p> <p>Likewise, it figures out things like "Mrs. Jane W. Smith" and "Dr. John Doe, Jr." correctly as well (assuming you allow for fields like "prefix" and "suffix" in names). </p> <p>I assume this is a fairly common things that people would want to do... so the question is... how would you do it? Is there a <em>simple</em> algorithm for this? Maybe a regular expression?</p> <p>I'm after a .NET solution, but I'm not picky.</p> <p><strong>Update:</strong> I appreciate that there is no simple solution for this that covers ALL edge cases and cultures... but let's say for the sake of argument that you need the name in pieces (filling out forms - as in, say, tax or other government forms - is one case where you are bound to enter the name into fixed fields, whether you like it or not), but you don't necessarily want to force the user to enter their name into discrete fields (less typing = easier for novice users). </p> <p>You'd want to have the program "guess" (as best it can) on what's first, middle, last, etc. If you can, look at how Microsoft Outlook does this for contacts - it lets you type in the name, but if you need to clarify, there's an extra little window you can open. I'd do the same thing - give the user the window in case they want to enter the name in discrete pieces - but allow for entering the name in one box and doing a "best guess" that covers <em>most</em> common names.</p>
    singulars
    1. PO
      singulars
      1. PTAnswer
    1. This table or related slice is empty.
    1. PTQuestion
    1. USKeithius
    1. USKeithius
    plurals
    1. This table or related slice is empty.
    1. PL
      singulars
      1. LTLinked
    2. PL
      singulars
      1. LTLinked
    3. PL
      singulars
      1. LTLinked
    1. This table or related slice is empty.
    1. PO
      singulars
      1. PTAnswer
    2. PO
      singulars
      1. PTAnswer
    3. PO
      singulars
      1. PTAnswer
    1. VO
      singulars
      1. POSimple way to parse a person's name into its component parts?
      1. This table or related slice is empty.
      1. VTUpMod
    2. VO
      singulars
      1. POSimple way to parse a person's name into its component parts?
      1. This table or related slice is empty.
      1. VTUpMod
    3. VO
      singulars
      1. POSimple way to parse a person's name into its component parts?
      1. This table or related slice is empty.
      1. VTUpMod
    1. COThis is one of those problems that seems simple, but becomes horribly complex with edge cases (people with: two middle names, hyphenated last names, prefixes like 'von', Asian names with family name first, etc.)
      singulars
      1. POSimple way to parse a person's name into its component parts?
      1. USChris Upchurch
    2. CODon't forget the case where you have Madonna or Prince as contacts :)
      singulars
      1. POSimple way to parse a person's name into its component parts?
      1. USMatt Howells
    3. COActually, single names are a bigger problem than certain self-obsessed pop stars. In some countries (Indonesia, for instance) a substantial portion of the population has only one name.
      singulars
      1. POSimple way to parse a person's name into its component parts?
      1. USChris Upchurch
 

Querying!

 
Guidance
A row detail

Detail views are divided into sections. All the information in the data section comes from columns in the selected row. The other sections display data from other, related rows.

Related data can be related in a to-one or a to-many fashion. Captions of data related in a to-many fashion link to a list view showing a filtered view of the table.

Try moving around until you find a non-empty to-many entry and click on the label to get to one. You can move back to the root by clicking on the database name in the header.

SQuiL has stopped working due to an internal error.

If you are curious you may find further information in the browser console, which is accessible through the devtools (F12).

Reload