Inverting a Fullname

[SMARTII]

In my old application I could define a field as INVERTED:

Field type: Inverted Alpha Numeric Counter Date Time

My A5 application Imports from external TEXT files (over which I have no control) that only have a Fullname field:
Paul J Kosko,Jr
The Key or index would then sort by:
Kosko,Jr Paul J
If I opened on the index, the order would be:
ROBERT M BANKSTER
PAUL J KOSKO
ALLEN A MCMANN
If you did a search you would enter Kosko instead of Paul J Kosko,Jr
Also, the user prints File Folder Labels where they want the first 4 of the Last Name:
K
O
S
K
on the edge of the label in BIG letters so it's easy to find a name in the vertical folder storage, where there are 1000's of folders.
So, I have to have a Last Name isolated to do this.
There are many exceptions to this "invert" :
Ex:
AMERICAN INSULATION INC. (I'd want (AMER). I don't want INC
THE DOROTHY WEST GROUP LLC (I'd want WEST). I don't want LLC or GROUP or THE. ie WEST GROUP LLC THE DOROTHY. or
at least DOROTHY WEST GROUP LLC THE
The invert type field took care of 85%. The 15% where inverted key/index sort would create a mess as above, I had to write a yarnball UDF to test if the name indicated a Company or Title or Both, and no adjectives at the beginning and ignore titles at the end: LLC INC CO CO. DDS PHD. N.A. III etc. Even then some would slip through.

I've searched the archives for "invert" and nothing relates that I found.
Any Ideas?

[Stan Mathews]

Any Ideas?

Ask a question if you have one.

Do you want to know how to search for Kosko in a fullname field? Try using Full Text Indexing.

If you want to order by lastname for proper names and significant word in company names I think you'll have to redo your udf in the current version of Alpha. Only you can determine what the significant word might be. You might consider adding a single character field to indicate whether the full name is proper or company which your udf could utilize.

[SMARTII]

Sorry, the q. would be how to isolate the last name.
q2. would be is there an A5 function that at least does this on a simple proper name as in MARY T GIOVANNI returns GIOVANNI MARY T

[Stan Mathews]

Not a single function but many functions to do what you want. One way ...

nme = "MARY T GIOVANNI"

? word(nme,3," ")+" "+word(nme,1," ",2)
= "GIOVANNI MARY T"

[jaryder]

Tom,

Here is some code that I have on a full name field that tries to properly switch person's name to last name first.

Jeff Ryder to Ryder Jeff
Jeff A Ryder to Ryder Jeff A
Jeff A Ryder III to Ryder III Jeff A
Jeff Ryder JR to Ryder JR Jeff
Jeff de Ryder to de Ryder Jeff

dim vStr as c
dim vNum as n
vStr=topparent:name.text
vNum=w_count(vStr)

'parse name to try to create sort key
select
    case vNum = 2
    	topparent:sortkey.value=word(vStr,2) + " " + word(vStr,1)
    case vNum = 3
    	if len(word(vStr,2)) = 1 then
    		topparent:sortkey.value=word(vStr,3) + " " + word(vStr,1," ",2)
    	else
    		topparent:sortkey.value=word(vStr,2," ",2) + " " + word(vStr,1)
     	end if
    case vNum = 4
    	topparent:sortkey.value=word(vStr,3," ",2) + " " + word(vStr,1," ",2)
    case else
    	topparent:sortkey.value=vStr
end select

[G Gabriel]

There was a thread from well over a year ago dealing with exactly this same issue. Will take some search to find it but it covers it pretty well specially unusal names e.g. Oscar de La Hoya, George Herbert Walker Bush or names ending with different suffix etc.

[SMARTII]

There was a thread from well over a year ago dealing with exactly this same issue. Will take some search to find it but it covers it pretty well specially unusal names e.g. Oscar de La Hoya, George Herbert Walker Bush or names ending with different suffix etc.

Now if only I can find the right search words.. that won't give me 500 threads.

[Stan Mathews]

Uh, think those might be the search words?

[G Gabriel]

Here you go.

[SMARTII]

Here you go.

I thank you all for your input on this.
I examined 3 clients records for the last 8 months (about 8,000 names). These names are all on Legal documents of registered property
First, many were Entities other than an individual.
Those I don't want to invert. The only thing I want to do is remove any common prefix adjectives. The only one I found in the sample was "THE ".
That had to be removed. Otherwise use the Entity as is.
How to tell if it's an Entity other than an individual?
Create a list of all the indicators in the name that would point to it being an Entity:
companylist = <<%a%
%a%
and compared with the fullname to see if a company-like indicator exists in the fullname.
'------------
Next I had the individuals with all kinds of titles.
The titles and variations were put into another List:
titlelist = <<%b%
%b%
and compared with the fullname to see if a title exists in it.
The title gets stripped from the name leaving and untitled common name.
Then the last name is taken from that untitled name.
Then Invert takes place.
'------------
The nice thing about the lists is that you can easily add to them as necessary with no other fuss.
'------------
Finally there is the untitled individuals.
The Invert takes place.
'------------
I did use a GOTO "DONE" label instead of an EXIT FUNCTION.
So, spank me..

I invite anyone to find a combo where it fails as intended.
Then I can work on it some more.

I especially thank jaryder and
G Gabriel

Ok:
Here it is:

FUNCTION invrtnam AS C (fulnam AS C )
Dim iscomp as c
Dim istitle as c
Dim prefx as c
Dim spc as c
Dim coma as c
Dim newnam as c
Dim compnam
Dim titlelen as n
spc = chr(32)
coma = chr(44)
If left(fulnam,3)= "THE"
 compnam = mid(fulnam,5)+spc+"THE"
    invrtnam = compnam
 goto DONE
end if
'-------- Do not Invert a Company type ----
companylist = <<%a%
CO
CO.
INC
INC.
INC/
LTD
LTD.
LLC
LLC.
BANK
BANC
SERVICES
INVESTMENTS
LP
CORP
CORP.
COMPANY
OF
LP
LT
INDUSTRIES
AGENCY
SPECIALIST
PRODUCTION
PLUMBING
USA
ENTERPRISES
ENTERTAINMENT
GROUP
%a%
'------------
iscomp = word_in_common(fulnam,companylist,spc)
if iscomp <> ""
  compnam = fulnam
  invrtnam = compnam
  goto DONE
end if
'------------ It's a Person -------- 
'Personal names will then be inverted
titlelist = <<%b%
II
IV
JR
SR
MD
MD.
MD PA
M.D. PA
MD,PHD
MD,PHD.
DDS
DDS,INC.
DDS,INC.
II
III
IV
PHD
PHD.
LSE
(LESSEE)
LESSEE
PA
PA.
MD
PC
CPA
CPA.
%b%
'------------
istitle = word_in_common(fulnam,titlelist,spc)
titlelen = len(istitle)
if titlelen >0  ' remove the title b4 inverting
  notitlenam = left(fulnam,len(fulnam)-titlelen -1)
  lastnam = lastword(notitlenam)
  newnam = \
  lastnam + spc + istitle + spc + left(notitlenam,len(notitlenam)-len(lastnam)-1)
  invrtnam = newnam 
else
  titlelen = len(fulnam)
  lastnam = lastword(fulnam)
  newnam = lastnam + spc + left(fulnam,titlelen - len(lastnam)- 1)
  invrtnam = newnam
end if
DONE:
END FUNCTION 

[G Gabriel]

How about "Joe Richman Bank"?
There is actually a guy by that name, I am not making it up.

[SMARTII]

How about "Joe Richman Bank"?
There is actually a guy by that name, I am not making it up.

As long as he's not in Texas....
I also found a Yang Zu INN as a person.
as in
Rusty Canyon INN
I guess I could remove BANK because nearly all banks include NA or N.A.