Question : Splitting contact names into component Title/Forename/Surname

Hi, just being lazy here!

Has anyone done a SQL stored procedure that will take a person's name and split it into its component parts?

E.G.

Mr Frederick A Bloggs

Would split this into:

Title: Mr
Forename: Frederick
Initials: F A
Surname: Bloggs

Ideally be intelligent enough to also spot that Mr Bloggs should only populate the Title and Surname.

I have done something similar that uses the charindex and patindex functions, I just didn't want to have to reinvent the wheel if someone else has already done it!

Thanks.

Answer : Splitting contact names into component Title/Forename/Surname

before we go deep into this are using SQL 2000 or SQL 2005? if 2005... just do it using:

1. SSIS : if you can
2. CLR : Develop a function using VB or C# they are FAR better in performance and eas of use...

3. If you are stuck with 2k :-) the way I would approach is :

Create 3 user defined functions

fnMr
fnFirstname
fnLastname

You Do something like this in the query :

SELECT fnMr (Contact_Name), fnFirstName (Contact_Name), fnLastName (ContactName)
FROM MyTable

fnMR : Code that would check for ... you guessed it....etc

You can also create one function (for code managability, passing a parameter that identifies what you're looking for

fnSplitname (Contact_Name, 'Mr')

Hope this helps... if you need more help on each function let me know