Parse Full Name Field Oracle

Question

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could help me with parsing a full name field. I would like to separate it into lastname, firstname, middle initial, suffix.

Here are some inputs for name followed by how I would like for them to be parsed.

                           Parsed Stuff Begins Here-------------------------------------
    name                  | lastname  | firstname        |  middle initial   | suffix |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLIC, JOHN              | PUBLIC    | JOHN             |  NULL             | NULL
PUBLIC, CHUN CH KIM       | PUBLIC    | CHUN CH KIM      |  NULL             | NULL
PUBLIC, MARY L            | PUBLIC    | MARY             |  L                | NULL
PUBLIC, FRED J JR         | PUBLIC    | FRED             |  J                | JR
PUBLIC, SUE ELLEN J SR    | PUBLIC    | SUE ELLEN        |  J                | SR

I have a list of all the suffix values that one is able to enter, i.e.

JR, SR, I,II,III,IV,V,VI

I've gotten to a point where I split up the lastname and the rest of the name, but I can't quite figure out how to do the rest. I'm using oracle 10g.

This is not a homework question. It's an actual problem I'm working on at work.

Here's what I currently have:

 select id,
        name,
        substr(name,1, instr(name,',')-1) as lname,
        substr(name,(instr(name,',')+1),length(name)) as rest_of_the_name
 from    my_table
 where status='A';

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

This is a problem for which there will always be data that breaks it.

What if there are 2 initials? What if the initials are first, as J Edgar Hoover?

You mention values "that one is able to enter." Can you change the way the values are entered to capture them already separated?

Answer 2

You've partially solved it already - you can use your query as a subquery and break the problem down bit by bit, e.g.:

select id, name, lname,
       case
       when substr(x, -2, 1) = ' '
       then substr(x, length(x) - 2)
       else x
       end as first_name, -- e.g. "SUE ELLEN"
       case
       when substr(x, -2, 1) = ' ' 
       then substr(x, -1)
       else null
       end as middle_initial, -- e.g. "J"
       suffix -- e.g. "SR"
from (
select id, name, lname, suffix,
       case when suffix is not null then
       substr(rest_of_the_name, 1, length(rest_of_the_name)-length(suffix)-1)
       else rest_of_the_name end
       as x -- e.g. "SUE ELLEN J"
from (
select id, name, lname, rest_of_the_name,
       case
       when substr(rest_of_the_name,-2)
            in (' I',' V')
       then substr(rest_of_the_name,-1)
       when substr(rest_of_the_name,-3)
            in (' JR',' SR',' II',' IV',' VI')
       then substr(rest_of_the_name,-2)
       when substr(rest_of_the_name,-4)
            in (' III')
       then substr(rest_of_the_name,-3)
       else null
       end as suffix -- e.g. "SR"
from (
select id,
       name, --e.g. "PUBLIC, SUE ELLEN J SR"
       trim(substr(name,1, instr(name,',')-1)) as lname, -- e.g. "PUBLIC"
       trim(substr(name,(instr(name,',')+1),length(name)))
          as rest_of_the_name -- e.g. "SUE ELLEN J SR"
from    my_table
where status='A'
)));

Answer 3

Here's an unsophisticated answer, based on the retrieving the first and last name, retrieving the MI the same way as the first name, removing the MI from 'rest_of_the_name' as the last name.

SELECT
substr('John Q. Public',1, instr('John Q. Public',' ')-1) as FirstName,
substr('John Q. Public',(instr('John Q. Public',' ')+1),length('John Q. Public')) as rest_of_the_name,
substr(substr('John Q. Public',(instr('John Q. Public',' ')+1),length('John Q. Public')),1, instr(substr('John Q. Public',(instr('John Q. Public',' ')+1),length('John Q. Public')),' ')-1) as MI,
replace(substr('John Q. Public',(instr('John Q. Public',' ')+1),length('John Q. Public')), substr(substr('John Q. Public',(instr('John Q. Public',' ')+1),length('John Q. Public')),1, instr(substr('John Q. Public',(instr('John Q. Public',' ')+1),length('John Q. Public')),' ')-1)) as LastName
FROM DUAL;