How to separate full name string into firstname and lastname string?

Question

I need some help with this, I have a fullname string and what I need to do is separate and use this fullname string as firstname and lastname separately.

Answer 1

This will work if you are sure you have a first name and a last name.

string fullName = "Adrian Rules";
var names = fullName.Split(' ');
string firstName = names[0];
string lastName = names[1];

Make sure you check for the length of names.

names.Length == 0 //will not happen, even for empty string
names.Length == 1 //only first name provided (or blank)
names.Length == 2 //first and last names provided
names.Length > 2 //first item is the first name. last item is the last name. Everything else are middle names

Update

Of course, this is a rather simplified view on the problem. The objective of my answer is to explain how string.Split() works. However, you must keep in mind that some last names are composite names, like "Luis da Silva", as noted by @AlbertEin.

This is far from being a simple problem to solve. Some prepositions (in french, spanish, portuguese, etc.) are part of the last name. That's why @John Saunders asked "what language?". John also noted that prefixes (Mr., Mrs.) and suffixes (Jr., III, M.D.) might get in the way.

Answer 2

You could try to parse it using spaces but it's not going to work, Example:

var fullName = "Juan Perez";
var name = fullName.Substring(0, fullName.IndexOf(" "));
var lastName = fullName.Substring(fullName.IndexOf(" ") + 1);

But that would fail with a ton of user input, what about if he does have two names? "Juan Pablo Perez".

Names are complicated things, so, it's not possible to always know what part is the first and last name in a given string.

EDIT

You should not use string.Split method to extract the last name, some last names are composed from two or more words, as example, a friend of mine's last name is "Ponce de Leon".

Answer 3

This solution will work for people that have a last name that has more than one word. Treat the first word as the first name and leave everything else as the last name.

public static string getLastNameCommaFirstName(String fullName) {
    List<string> names = fullName.Split(' ').ToList();
    string firstName = names.First();
    names.RemoveAt(0);

    return String.Join(" ", names.ToArray()) + ", " + firstName;            
} 

For Example passing Brian De Palma into the above function will return "De Palma, Brian"

getLastNameFirst("Brian De Palma");
//returns "De Palma, Brian"

Answer 4

You can use this version (MSDN) of Split method like follow:

var testcase = "John Doe";
var split = testcase.Split(new char[] { ' ' }, 2);

In this case split[0] will be John and split[1] will be Deo. another example:

var testcase = "John Wesley Doe";
var split = testcase.Split(new char[] { ' ' }, 2);

In this case split[0] will be John and split[1] will be Wesley Doe.

Notice that the length of split never be more than 2

So with following code you can get FirstName and LastName nicely:

var firstName = "";
var lastName = "";
var split = testcase.Split(new char[] { ' ' }, 2);
if (split.Length == 1)
{
    firstName = "";
    lastName = split[0];
}
else
{
    firstName = split[0];
    lastName = split[1];
}

Hope this answer add something useful to this page.

Answer 5

Try:

  string fullName = "The mask lol"; 
    string[] names = fullName.Split(' '); 
    string name = names.First();
    string lasName = names.Last(); 

Answer 6

There are several implementations of name parsing/splitting over at nuget. If you dive into the NameParserSharp repository you can also just combine two partial classes and copy & paste into your own library.

NameParserSharp

More at Nuget

Answer 7

I would recommend using a Regex to rigorously define what your first and last names look like.

Answer 8

name ="Tony Stark is dead";

get_first_name(String name) {
    var names = name.split(' ');
    String first_name= "";
 
    for (int i = 0; i != names.length; i++) {
      if (i != names.length - 1) 
      {
        if (i == 0) {
          first_name= first_name+ names[i];
        } else {
          first_name= first_name+ " " + names[i];
        }
      }
    }
    return first_name; // Tony Stark is
  }



  get_last_name(String name) {
    var names = name.split(' ');
    return names[names.length - 1].toString(); // dead
  }

Answer 9

Here is a piece of c# code that I use on my projects. It returns the last word as surname and the rest as name.

Fiddle

Output:

Mary Isobel Catherine O’Brien
-------------------------
Name : Mary Isobel Catherine , Surname : O’Brien

P.S. No middle name, sorry.

public static string[] SplitFullNameIntoNameAndSurname(string pFullName)
{
    string[] NameSurname = new string[2];
    string[] NameSurnameTemp = pFullName.Split(' ');
    for (int i = 0; i < NameSurnameTemp.Length; i++)
    {
        if (i < NameSurnameTemp.Length - 1)
        {
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(NameSurname[0]))
                NameSurname[0] += " " + NameSurnameTemp[i];
            else
                NameSurname[0] += NameSurnameTemp[i];
        }
        else
            NameSurname[1] = NameSurnameTemp[i];
    }
    return NameSurname;
}

Answer 10

You can try to port this PHP lib https://github.com/joshfraser/PHP-Name-Parser/blob/master/parser.php

Answer 11

So if you take the First space as Name and rest as Surname, this would give us

Person myPerson = new Person();

Misc tidyup = new Misc();
string[] result = tidyup.SplitFullName(tb1.Text);

foreach (string s in result)
{
    Console.WriteLine(s);

    if (result.First() == s)
    {
        myPerson.FirstName = s;
    }
    else
    {
        myPerson.LastName += s + " ";
        Console.WriteLine(s);
        Console.WriteLine(myPerson.LastName);
    }
}    

public string[] SplitFullName(string myName)
{
    string[] names = myName.Split(' ');
    //string firstName = names[0];
    //string lastName = names[1];

    return names;
}

Answer 12

Easy, simple code to transform something like Flowers, Love to Love Flowers (this works with very complex names such as Williams Jones, Rupert John):

        string fullname = "Flowers, Love";
        string[] fullnameArray = fullname.Split(",");//Split specify a separator character, so it's removed
        for (int i = fullnameArray.Length - 1; i >= fullnameArray.Length - 2; i--)
        {
                Write($"{fullnameArray[i].TrimStart() + " "}");
        } 

output: Love Flowers

The other way around. Love Flowers converted to Flowers, Love:

        string fullname = "Love Flowers";
        int indexOfTheSpace = fullname.IndexOf(' ');
        string firstname = fullname.Substring(0, indexOfTheSpace);
        string lastname = fullname.Substring(indexOfTheSpace + 1);
        WriteLine($"{lastname}, {firstname}");

Answer 13

There is more than one method for this. My specific situation is solved with a code example like below.

for Example

---

if there is only one space in the user's name.

 int idx = fullName.IndexOf(' '); //This customer name : Osman Veli

if there is more than one space in the user's name.

 if (fullName.Count(Char.IsWhiteSpace) > 1)
 {
    idx = fullName.LastIndexOf(' '); //This customer name : Osman Veli Sağlam
 }

  if (idx != -1)
  {
    // Osman Veli Sağlam
    firstName = fullName.Substring(0, idx); // FirstName: Osman Veli 
    lastName = fullName.Substring(idx + 1); // LastName : Sağlam
   }

Answer 14

Is this as simple as calling string.Split(), passing a single space as the split character? Or is there something trickier going on here? (If the latter, please update your question with more info.)

Answer 15

for basic use cases its easy to just split on ' ' or ', ' however due to the variety of names with differing things in them this is not going to always work.

Answer 16

you can create a value object to represent a name and use it in your application

public class Name
{
    public string FirstName { get; private set; }
    public string LastName { get; private set; }
    public string FullName { get; }

    public Name(string name)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(name))
            return;

        FullName = name;

        LoadFirstAndLastName();
    }

    private void LoadFirstAndLastName()
    {
        var names = FullName.Trim().Split(" ", 2);

        FirstName = names.First();

        if (names.Count() > 1)
            LastName = names.Last();
    }

    public override string ToString() => FullName;

    //Enables implicit set (Name name = "Rafael Silva")
    public static implicit operator Name(string name) => new Name(name);
}

Usages:

Name name = "Jhon Doe"; //FirstName = Jhon - LastName = Doe
Name name = new Name("Jhon Doe"); //FirstName = Jhon - LastName = Doe    
Name name = new Name("Rafael Cristiano da Silva"); //FirstName = Rafael - LastName = Cristiano da Silva

//On class property
public Name Name {get; set; } = "Jhon Doe";

Answer 17

Better to be late than never, here is my solution for this used in many applications.

 string fullName = "John De Silva";
 string[] names = fullName.Split(" ");
 string firstName = names.First(); // John
 string lastName = string.Join(" ", names.Skip(1).ToArray()); // De Silva

Enjoy !

Answer 18

Sub SplitFullName(Full_Name As String)

        Dim names = Full_Name.Split(" ")
        Dim FirstName As String = ""
        Dim MiddletName As String = ""
        Dim LastName As String = ""
        If names.Count = 0 Then
            FirstName = ""
            MiddletName = ""
            LastName = ""
        ElseIf names.Count = 1 Then
            FirstName = names(0)
        ElseIf names.Count = 2 Then
            FirstName = names(0)
            LastName = names(1)
        Else
            FirstName = names(0)
            For i = 1 To names.Count - 2
                MiddletName += " " & names(i)
            Next
            LastName = names(names.Count - 1)
        End If
        MsgBox("The first name is: " & FirstName & ";   The middle name is: " & MiddletName & ";    The last name is: " & LastName)

End Sub

Answer 19

I've added some more check to get the desired result for example other solution work but when i intentionally take two spaces it do not work, so here is workaround.

final name = ' sambhav';
final words = name.trim().split(' ');
final firstName = words[0];
final lastName = words.length > 1 ? words[words.length - 1] : '';
print('first name : $firstName, last name : $lastName');

Result

input : Sambhav jain // first name : Sambhav, last name : jain    
input : Sambhav the jain // first name : Sambhav, last name : jain  
input : Sambhav // first name : Sambhav, last name :

Answer 20

Here is my extension. It returns the last word as the last name and the rest as the first name.

public static void SplitFullName(this string fullName, out string firstName, out string lastName)
{
    firstName = string.Empty;
    lastName = string.Empty;
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(fullName))
    {

        lastName = string.Empty; firstName = string.Empty;
        int splitIndex = fullName.LastIndexOf(' ');
        if (splitIndex >= 0)
        {
            firstName = fullName.Substring(0, splitIndex);
            lastName = fullName.Substring(splitIndex + 1);
        }
        else
            firstName = fullName;
    }

}

Usage:

"Micheal".SplitFullName(out string first, out string last);
// first = "Micheal"
// last = ""

"Micheal Jackson".SplitFullName(out string first, out string last);
// first = "Micheal"
// last = "Jackson"

"Micheal Joseph Jackson".SplitFullName(out string first, out string last);
// first = "Micheal Joseph"
// last = "Jackson"

On a side note Visual Studio Intellisense is getting out of hand! I only wrote the code up to the if condition and the rest was completed by Intellisense.

Answer 21

Solution in dart/flutter:

var fullName = 'Jawad Hussain Abbasi';

firstName = fullName.split(' ')[0];

lastName = fullName.split(' ').skip(1).join(" ");

log('First Name: $firstName'); // Jawad

log('Last Name: $lastName'); // Hussain Abbasi