varchar question

[182x]

Hey guys, Just wondering when using PHP with a mysql database, if there is no need for two fields such as first name and surname but just name is varchar suitable for this or does it get confused with spaces?

for example could the name john smith be used in a field called name with varchar(15)?

Thanks.

[NogDog]

One reason to keep the fields separate is in case you would ever want to do a search or sort by surname. The following is very simple to do with two separate fields, but would be quite a bit more complicated if you used one field:

SELECT * FROM table_name ORDER BY last_name, first_name