parsing question

[pikebro2002]

i need to extract the first and last name from the variable $name into their own variables. what function would i use to do this?

[thekidrio]

It depends on how its stored in the $name variable

i.e.
Smith, John
or
John Smith

most I am guessing that you will just have to use strtok to divide the $name string using a token character

i.e.

$name= "smith, john";
//grab first segment
$currentNamePart = strtok($name, ",");
//assign first segment
$lastName = $currentNamePart;
//grab Secon segment
$currentNamePart = strtok($name, ",");
//assign Second segment
$firstName = $currentNamePart;

[bpat1434]

Or just:

list($first, $last) = explode(" ", $name);
list($last, $first) = explode(" ", $name);

strtok might be a bit much since you can just use one function to get both items.

NOTE: explode(string separator, string string [, integer limit])
The function will return an array, unless you use the list() construct which creates variables from the values in an array.

~Brett

[Installer]

...explode...will return an array, unless you use the list() construct...

Just to clarify for newbies: "explode()" always returns an array if the string is not empty (false otherwise), which can then be apportioned to scalars with "list()". e.g. this:

list($first, $last) = explode(" ", $name);

is equivalent to this:

$arr = explode(' ', $name;
list($first, $last) = $arr;

except for the creation of one fewer variable, of course.

[pikebro2002]

thanks a lot, i used list($first, $last) = explode(" ", $name); and it works fine.