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Software

Parsing a Person's Name - C#

Overview¶

The code supplied below will parse a string for a person's name in any of the following formats. ("Suffix" is any of the following generational suffixes: "Jr", "Jr.", "Sr", "Sr.", "III", "IV")

• First
• First Last
• First Middle Last
• First Middle1 Middle2 ... MiddleN Last
• Last, First
• Last, First Middle
• Last, First Middle1 Middle2 ... MiddleN
• First Last, Suffix
• First Middle Last, Suffix
• First Middle1 Middle2 ... MiddleN Last, Suffix
  

Note that this does NOT properly handle the following scenarios.

• Edward Van Halen — last name = Van Halen
• James Van Der Beek — last name = Van Der Beek
• Ludwig van Beethoven — last name = Beethoven
  

Code¶

public static Name ParseName(this string input)
{
    /*--- Inits ---*/
    var words = input.Split(
        new char[] {' ', ',' }, 
        StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries
        )
        .ToList();

    var n = words.Count;

    /*--- Special Cases ---*/
    if (n == 0)
    {
        return new Name();
    }

    if (n == 1)
    {
        return new Name { First = words[0] };
    }

    /*--- No Comma ---*/
    if (!input.Contains(","))
    {
        var result = new Name { First = words[0], Last = words[n - 1] };

        if (n > 2)
        {
            result.Middle = string.Join(' ', words.Skip(1).Take(n - 2));
        }

        return result;
    }

    /*--- Comma After First Word ---*/
    if (input.IndexOf(',') < input.IndexOf(' '))
    {
        var result = new Name { Last = words[0], First = words[1] };

        result.Middle = string.Join(' ', words.Skip(2));

        return result;
    }

    /*--- Comma Later ---*/
    var suffixes = new List<string>()
    {
        "JR.", "JR", "SR.", "SR", "III", "IV"
    };

    if (suffixes.Contains(words[n-1].ToUpperInvariant()))
    {
        var result = string.Join(' ', words.Take(n - 1)).ParseName();
        result.Suffix = words[n - 1];
        return result;
    }

    /*--- Contains Comma Later, But No Matching Suffix ---*/
    {
        words = input
            .Split(',', StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
            .ToList();

        n = words.Count();

        if (n == 0)
        {
            return new Name();
        }

        var result = new Name { Last = words[0] };

        result.First = string.Join(' ', words.Skip(1));
                
        return result;
    }
}

public class Name
{
    public Name()
    {
        First = string.Empty;
        Middle = string.Empty;
        Last = string.Empty;
        Suffix = string.Empty;
    }
    public string First { get; set; }
    public string Middle { get; set; }
    public string Last { get; set; }
    public string Suffix { get; set; }
}