Parsing Last,First Middle Name

Question

Post reply

Parsing Last,First Middle Name

ajlefort

Old Hand

Points: 323
More actions
July 15, 2013 at 12:30 pm

#395143

Hi,
I need to parse last name,first name space middle name.
Example A - DOE,JOHN
Example B - DOE,JOHN A
I am able to parse the last name.
left(dbo.AbstractData.Name, charindex(',', dbo.AbstractData.Name)-1) as last name
I can parse the first and middle names together.
ltrim(right( dbo.AbstractData.Name,(len(dbo.AbstractData.Name)-charindex(',',dbo.AbstractData.Name))))
as firstmiddlename
I can parse the middle name.
SUBSTRING(dbo.AbstractData.Name,CHARINDEX(' ',dbo.AbstractData.Name + ' ')+1,LEN(dbo.AbstractData.Name))
I am having trouble parsing the first name. The first name is everything after the comma and before the first blank after the comma (or the end of the string, in which case there is no middle name).
Can anyone help me parse the first name only?
Thanks

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

Sean Lange SSC Guru Points: 286590 More actions · Answer 1

Not 100% certain what you are after here but take a look at this. This will parse everything into last, first, middle.

if OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#Something') is not null

drop table #Something

create table #Something

(

SomeID int identity,

FullName varchar(25)

)

insert #Something

select 'DOE,JOHN' union all

select 'DOE,JOHN A'

select *

from #Something

cross apply dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(replace(FullName, ' ', ','), ',') p

You can find the code for the DelimitedSplit8K function by following the link in my signature about splitting strings.

_______________________________________________________________

Need help? Help us help you.

Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183706 More actions · Answer 2

If you ever cross with a spanish last name with spaces, you might have problems with the 8K splitter.

This formula might have its own problems, but it's another option for you.

if OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#Something') is not null

drop table #Something

create table #Something

(

SomeID int identity,

FullName varchar(25)

)

insert #Something

select 'DOE,JOHN' union all

select 'DOE,JOHN A' union all

select 'DE LA VEGA,ELENA'

SELECT SUBSTRING( FullName, CHARINDEX(',', FullName) + 1, ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(' ', FullName, CHARINDEX(',', FullName)), 0), 8000) - (CHARINDEX(',', FullName) + 1))

,CHARINDEX(',', FullName) + 1

,ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(' ', FullName, CHARINDEX(',', FullName)), 0), 8000) - (CHARINDEX(',', FullName) + 1)

FROM #Something

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

sqldriver SSChampion Points: 10440 More actions · Answer 3

This isn't precisely what you're trying to do, but I found it helpful when trying to do some similar parsing. There's a lot you have to look out for.

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=25049

Steven Willis SSCrazy Eights Points: 9893 More actions · Answer 4

Take a look at the procedure in this post:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost1472808.aspx