How do you autocomplete names containing spaces?

Question

I am working on implementing an autocompletion script in javascript. However, some of the names are two word names with a space in the middle. What kind of algorithm can you use to deal with it. I am using a trie to store the names.
The only solutions I could come up with were just saying that two word names cannot be used (either run them together or put a dash in the middle). The other idea was to create a list of these kind of names and have a separate loop to check the input. The other and possibly best idea I have is to redesign it slightly and have categories for first and last names and then an extra name category. I was wondering if there was a better solution out there?

Edit: I realized I wasn't very clear on what I was asking. My problem isn't adding two word phrases to the trie, but returning them when someone is typing in a name. In the trie I split the first and last names so you can search by either. So if someone types in the first name and then a space, how would I tell if they are typing in the rest of the first name or if they are now typing in the last name.

why are spaces different from any other character? – Winston Ewert Mar 10 '11 at 02:54 — Winston Ewert, Mar 10 '11 at 02:54

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 10 '11 at 02:55

3

Why not have the trie also include the names with spaces?

Once you have a list of candidates, split each of them on the space and show the first token...

answered Mar 10 '11 at 02:55

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 10 '11 at 02:55

0

Is there a reason you are rolling your own autocomplete script, instead of using a currently existing one, such as YUI autocomplete? (i.e. are you doing it just for fun?, etc.)

answered Mar 10 '11 at 02:55

J. Taylor

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I am doing it for use in an application, but I am also doing it for fun since I like to figure out how things like this work. – qw3n Mar 10 '11 at 04:18

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 10 '11 at 03:05

If you have a way to parse the two-word names, then just include spaces in your trie. But if you cannot determine what is a two-word name and what is two separate words, and your trie cannot be large enough to hold all two-word sequences, then you have a problem.

One simple way to solve this is to default to allowing two-word pairs, but if you have too much branching after the space, throw away that entire branch. This way, when the first word is predictive for the second, you'll get autocompletion, but when it could be any of a huge number of things, your trie will end at the end of a single word.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 10 '11 at 07:07

If you using multiline editor, i guess the best choice autocomplete items will be a word. So firstname, middlename and lastname must be parsed and add a lookup item.

For (one line) textbox use you can add whitespaces (and firstname + space + middlename + space + lastname pattern) in search criteria.

How do you autocomplete names containing spaces?

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