Splitting a Column into various columns - sql

Question

-- Create table dbo.FullNameTest
IF OBJECT_ID('FullNameTest') IS NOT NULL BEGIN
DROP TABLE dbo.FullNameTest;
END;
CREATE TABLE FullNameTest
(
ID INT Not Null IDENTITY
, FullName NVARCHAR(80) Not Null
, CONSTRAINT PK_ID PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED(ID)
);
GO
INSERT INTO FullNameTest
VALUES('Mr Hog Finn Gad'), ('Grace Bruce'), ('Dr.Paul'), ('Master Clark James'), ('Mrs.Rignald')
SELECT * FROM FullNameTest
Rules
Treat entries (Mrs, Mr, Miss etc) as Titles and ignore the dot after title
When we have title and a single name, return it as Title, LastName
When we have title and two names return it as Title, FirstName and LastName
When we have title and three names, return Title, FirstName and treat the rest as LastName
When we have no title, reurn data as FirstName, LastName
No function required.
So we can get values in this form:
Title FirstName LastName
------------------------------
Mr Hog Finn Gad
Null Grace Bruce
Dr Null Paul
Master Clark James
Mrs Null Rignald
Thank you

Answer 1

EDIT: ***To test the results yourself, use the following to create your full name table, then run the code to create the title table, and then run the solution code below that. The results are exactly what you asked for.
CREATE TABLE #FullNameTest
(
ID INT Not Null IDENTITY
, FullName NVARCHAR(80) Not Null
);
GO
INSERT INTO #FullNameTest
VALUES('Mr Hog Finn Gad'), ('Grace Bruce'), ('Dr.Paul'), ('Master Clark James'), ('Mrs.Rignald')
This may not work in every situation, and it requires the use of a reference table with Titles, but it should get you started. Again, I would suggest putting in some data validation restraints so you don't get unexpected input. If that's not possible, then run some algorithms to clean your data first. It gets messy when you try to do stuff like this in SQL.
Create a title reference table with title and length of title.
create table #title (Title varchar(15), Long as len(Title))
insert into #title (Title) values
('Mr'),
('Mister'),
('Ms'),
('Miss'),
('Mrs'),
('Misses'),
('Dr'),
('Doctor'),
('Senator'),
('Officer'),
('Master')
Your table looks like this:
Mr 2
Mister 6
Ms 2
Miss 4
Mrs 3
Misses 6
Dr 2
Doctor 6
Senator 7
Officer 7
Master 6
Then you've got this monstrous block of code that attempts to account for every case of input you may have. AGAIN - Try to clean your data first if possible. Otherwise you will have to modify this code every time you receive something unexpected.
select y.RawName
, y.Title
, y.FName
, case when RawName like '%'+y.Title+'% %'+y.FName+'%' then RIGHT(RawName, len(RawName)-LEN(y.Title+'% %'+y.FName+' ')+1)
when Title is not null then RIGHT(RawName, len(RawName)-len(title))
when Title is null and RawName like '% %' then RIGHT(RawName, len(RawName)-len(Fname)-1)
end LName
from (
select RawName
, Title
, case when right(RawName, len(RawName)-len(title)-1) like '% %'
then left(right(RawName, len(RawName)-len(title)-1), CHARINDEX(' ', right(RawName, len(RawName)-len(title)-1),1))
when RawName like '% %'
then left(RawName, CHARINDEX(' ', RawName, 1))
end FName
from (
select
replace(f.FullName, '.', '') RawName
, t.title Title
, ROW_NUMBER() over(partition by f.fullname order by len(t.title) desc) row_n
from #FullNameTest f
left join #title t
on left(f.fullname, t.long) = t.title
) x
where row_n = 1
) y
Based on your samples from above, you are left with the following:
RawName Title FName LName
DrPaul Dr NULL Paul
Grace Bruce NULL Grace Bruce
Master Clark James Master Clark James
Mr Hog Finn Gad Mr Hog Finn Gad
MrsRignald Mrs NULL Rignald
If this is helps you with your problem, please accept it as the answer. :)

Answer 2

Below is the code I eventually used:
SELECT Title,
CASE
WHEN CHARINDEX(' ',PARTNAME) = 0 THEN NULL
ELSE LEFT(PARTNAME, CHARINDEX(' ',PARTNAME))
END AS [FirstName],
CASE WHEN CHARINDEX(' ',PARTNAME) = 0 THEN PARTNAME
ELSE RIGHT(PARTNAME, LEN(PARTNAME) - CHARINDEX(' ', PARTNAME))
END AS [LastName]
FROM
(
SELECT TITLE, LTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(FULLNAME,ISNULL(TITLE,''),''),'.','')) AS PARTNAME
FROM (
SELECT CASE
WHEN CHARINDEX('DR ',FullName) = 1 THEN 'Dr'
WHEN CHARINDEX('DR.',FullName) = 1 THEN 'Dr'
WHEN CHARINDEX('MR ',FullName) = 1 THEN 'Mr'
WHEN CHARINDEX('MR.',FullName) = 1 THEN 'Mr'
WHEN CHARINDEX('MRS ',FullName) = 1 THEN 'Mrs'
WHEN CHARINDEX('MRS.',FullName) = 1 THEN 'Mrs'
WHEN CHARINDEX('MISS ',FullName) = 1 THEN 'Miss'
WHEN CHARINDEX('MISS.',FullName) = 1 THEN 'Miss'
WHEN CHARINDEX('MASTER ',FullName) = 1 THEN 'Master'
WHEN CHARINDEX('MASTER.',FullName) = 1 THEN 'Master'
ELSE NULL
END AS [Title], FullName
FROM FullNameTest
) B
) C
Thanks so much for your help