Home Forums SQL Server 2016 SQL Server 2016 - Development and T-SQL Extract Text around comma and space into other columns RE: Extract Text around comma and space into other columns

  • February 6, 2018 at 1:52 pm

    #1978785

    usererror - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 1:11 PM

    drew.allen - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 1:02 PM

    And what happens when someone has a first name that includes a space?  "Jackson, La Toya"

    Drew

    A valid point.  It seems then I'd need something that would look for the comma on the left and only a space in the 2nd character position from the right, possibly?

    There could be spaces in the last name as well...  combined names (Smith, Jim & Donna)... etc...
    Without fixed delimiters you can rely on, I suspect you'll find a never ending list of edge cases and bad data and could spend the rest of your life trying to get 100%.
    The best option would be to push back on the vendor to send you the data parsed out instead of combined if you really need the name elements split out.