SQL: parse the first, middle and last name from a fullname field

Question

How do I parse the first, middle, and last name out of a fullname field with SQL?

I need to try to match up on names that are not a direct match on full name. I\'d

Answer 1

I'm not sure about SQL server, but in postgres you could do something like this:

SELECT 
  SUBSTRING(fullname, '(\\w+)') as firstname,
  SUBSTRING(fullname, '\\w+\\s(\\w+)\\s\\w+') as middle,
  COALESCE(SUBSTRING(fullname, '\\w+\\s\\w+\\s(\\w+)'), SUBSTRING(fullname, '\\w+\\s(\\w+)')) as lastname
FROM 
public.person

The regex expressions could probably be a bit more concise; but you get the point. This does by the way not work for persons having two double names (in the Netherlands we have this a lot 'Jan van der Ploeg') so I'd be very careful with the results.