Hey everyone! I’m working on a database project and I’m stuck. I’ve got a table with a column that has people’s names, but they’re all jumbled up. Some have last names first, others have middle initials, and it’s a real mess. Here’s what I’m dealing with:
Name_Column
----------------
Smith-Jones, John A
DOE, Jane M.
BROWN, Robert T.
Sarah Johnson
I need to split this into three columns: Last Name, First Name, and Middle Name (if there is one). Something like this:
Surname | GivenName | MiddleName
---------------------------------
Smith-Jones | John | A
DOE | Jane | M
BROWN | Robert | T
Johnson | Sarah |
Can anyone help me figure out how to do this with SQL Server? I’ve tried a few things, but I can’t seem to get it right. Any tips or tricks would be super helpful! Thanks in advance!
ooh, interesting challenge! have u thought about using regex? it might handle those tricky name formats better. could u share a bit more about ur dataset size? and how accurate does the split need to be? im curious how youre planning to handle cultural naming differences too. sounds like a fun project!
hey, try to use parsename with a replace for the comma. use something like:
SELECT parsename(replace(Name_Column, ‘,’, ‘.’),2) as surname, parsename(replace(Name_Column, ‘,’, ‘.’),1) as givenname. not perfect but a start. good luck!
I’ve tackled a similar problem before. While PARSENAME can work, it has limitations with complex names. A more robust approach might be using a combination of STRING_SPLIT and CHARINDEX functions. First, split the name on the comma, then handle the given name part separately. You’ll need to account for variations like hyphenated surnames and inconsistent formatting. Consider creating a custom function to handle edge cases. Testing thoroughly with a diverse set of names is crucial to ensure your solution works across all scenarios. If you’re dealing with a large dataset, also think about performance optimization.