How to get last name first inital [duplicate] - php

Question

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Closed 11 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Regex - Return First and Last Name
Hi,
I have the full name of users stored in one field. How can i get the full first name and last name first initial. This is what i am using right now:
$first = substr($full_n, 0, strpos($full_n,' '));

Answer 1

list ($first, $last) = explode(' ', $full_n, 2);
echo "$first {$last[0]}.";
Will not work with more than two names too, like all the other solutions. You should save all (firstname, middle name, surname, ...) separatly, if you want to do more with it, than just displaying.
Update:
Inspired be Pekka (comments of the question ;))
$names = explode(' ', $full_n);
$first = array_shift($names);
$last = array_pop($names);
echo "$first {$last[0]}.";
This works for an arbitrary (>= 2) count of names, but will only display the first (complete) and the last (shortened). Something like "Schmidt-Mueller" will look curious ("S.").

Answer 2

Well, you're almost there...
If it's guaranteed that your users will have two names (just first and last, with no spaces in either), then you could just do this:
$full_n = 'Demian Brecht';
$first = substr($full_n, 0, strpos($full_n,' ')+2);
print_r($first);
However, if you're dealing with > 2 names, then you'll have to rethink your logic.

Answer 3

(not an answer but too big to be a comment)
There is no solution to this problem, you will just have to decide in what way will you mangle peoples names.
There are several decent examples in the answers already, but they will all fail on Pekka's examples in his comment. Some names like Hillary Rodham Clinton are often hyphenated Hillary Rodham-Clinton and will be less of a problem.
Simpler common examples such as John von Neumann or Phillip de la Cruz will still fail.

Answer 4

$full_n = trim($full_n); // remove extra spaces
$first_name = substr($full_n, 0, strpos($full_n, ' '));
$last_initial = substr($full_n, strrchr($full_n, ' '), 1);
$result = trim($first_name . ' ' . $last_initial);

Answer 5

I had a hard time understanding this question. If you want the full first name and the first initial of the last name.
$firstwithlastnameinitial = substr($full_n, 0, strpos($full_n, ' ')) . substr($full_n, strpos($full_n, ' ') + 1, 1);
OR
list ($fname, $lname) = explode(' ', $full_n, 2);
$lastwithfirstinitial = $fname . substr($lname, 0, 1);
If you want the full last name with first initial of the first name:
$lastwithfirstinitial = substr($full_n, strpos($full_n, ' ') + 1, strlen($full_n)) . substr($full_n, 0, 1);
This should retrieve the last name plus the first initial. Or something easier to read.
list ($fname, $lname) = explode(' ', $full_n, 2);
$lastwithfirstinitial = $lname . substr($fname, 0, 1);