asked on

basic reg ex splitting a name into forename and surname

Hi

I don't know very much about regular expressions. How would i split a string input that represents a name into its forname and surname parts. I am assuming forenames cannot contain spaces for now so i would need to split the string into 2 parts based on the first space character in the string input. I then need each part of the regular expression in 2 separate variables. I think i would use the Match object for this but i dont know how to access the matched parts.

thanks
andrea

Wayne Taylor (webtubbs)

Hi Andrea,

You need not use RegExp for this, as the String object has a Split method, which returns an array of strings, using the specified delimiter....

Dim FullName() As String = "John Smith".Split(" ")
Dim FirstName As String = FullName(0)
Dim Surname As String = FullName(1)

Regards,

Wayne

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Göran Andersson

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ZeonFlash

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andieje

ASKER

hi webtubbs

won't that solution split a surname that includes a space in it too? i think green shost has provided a more accurate solution

thanks a lot

andieje

ASKER

thanks a lot

Göran Andersson

> won't that solution split a surname that includes a space in it too?

Yes, you would only get the first and middle name:

Dim FullName() As String = "Georg von Trapp".Split(" ")

FullName(0) contains "Georg"
FullName(1) contains "von"

but:

FullName(2) contains "Trapp"

It's possible to use the split without losing the information, you can limit the split to not return more than two strings:

Dim FullName() As String = "Georg von Trapp".Split(" ".ToCharArray(), 2)

FullName(0) contains "Georg"
FullName(1) contains "von Trapp"

However, if you have a string containing more than strictly a first and last name, you can't really split it accurately if you don't have any information what the middle part is. It can be who first names like "Reginald Kenneth Dwight", a nickname like "Bernard 'Bernie' Taupin", a split last name like "Jon Bon Jovi", a title like "Georg von Trapp" or a double last name like "Frank Lloyd Wright".