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Hi rtremaine,

If you're sure there's always going to be whitespace between names, you could do something like this:

sub parse_name { my ($namestr) = @_; my @names = split(/\s+/, $namestr); my ($last, $first, $middle) = ($names[0], $names[1], $names[2]); $last =~ s/,$//; $middle ||= ""; return [ $first, $middle, $last ]; }

Note that the subroutine also trims any comma from the end of the last name, and returns a blank middle name if one wasn't defined.

Now call the subroutine parse_name() with a name string, and you'll get a reference to a list containing the first, middle, and last names.  For example:

+ use strict; use warnings; + my @data = ( 'Smith, John', 'Thompson, Frank A', 'Smith, John A JR', 'Smith, John A III', 'Smith, John A (Johnny)', ); foreach my $name (@data) { my $p = parse_name($name); printf "First(%10.10s) Middle(%5.5s) Last(%10.10s)\n", @$p; } __END__ Output: First( John) Middle( ) Last( Smith) First( Frank) Middle( A) Last( Thompson) First( John) Middle( A) Last( Smith) First( John) Middle( A) Last( Smith) First( John) Middle( A) Last( Smith)

Update:  Added test code.


s''(q.S:$/9=(T1';s;(..)(..);$..=substr+crypt($1,$2),2,3;eg;print$..$/

In reply to Re: Newbie parsing problem by liverpole
in thread Newbie parsing problem by rtremaine

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