homebrew01 (6/2/2013)
In a simple world, it looks like a good opportunity to use the '*' to split the field into 3 columns:FName
MName
LName
Gives you much more flexibility for future needs.
Unfortunately, this is not a simple world. It is highly unlikely that this will work properly because not everyone has a middle name. With a simple solution like the one proposed, the last name of such will end up in the middle name column. Admittedly, it's not rocket science to do a little coding to properly split the names and figure out if there is a middle name or not.
It does get more complex, though. What of a name like this:
John*Henderson*Jr
Jr would be placed in the last name...but that's not a name at all.
The integrity of the data entry must be certain, and then the algorithm needs to be well thought out. Again, not rocket science, but...
Dana