From: "Dan Stevens (IAmAI)" <dan.stevens.iamai@...>
Date: 2007-06-25T22:01:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Regexp to split name?

On 23/06/07, darren kirby <bulliver@badcomputer.org> wrote:
> quoth the Alex MacCaw:
> > Does anyone have an example of splitting a name into first and last
> > names? Or is just a case of doing string.split(' ')?
>
> I'd say a regexp is overkill here.
>
> irb(main):001:0> name = "Alex MacCaw"
> => "Alex MacCaw"
> irb(main):002:0> first, last = name.split
> => ["Alex", "MacCaw"]
> irb(main):003:0> first
> => "Alex"
> irb(main):004:0> last
> => "MacCaw"
>
> Note that you will have to do more work to accommodate middle names and
> titles, ie: Mr, Mrs, Dr etc...
>
> -d
> --
> darren kirby :: Part of the problem since 1976 :: http://badcomputer.org
> "...the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected..."
> - Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972
>
>


name = "Mr John Joe Peter Smith"
TITLES = ["Mr", "Mrs", "Ms", "Dr"]
a = name.split
last = a.pop
title = a.shift if TITLES.include? a.first
first = a.shift
middles = a

title #=> "Mr"
first #=> "John"
middles #=> ["Joe", "Peter"]
last #=> Smith"