topic How to separate full_name Jon Emma M as last_name Jon, first_name Emma, Middle Initial_M in SAS Programming

How to separate full_name Jon Emma M as last_name Jon, first_name Emma, Middle Initial_M

DesmondSas715 — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 17:54:58 GMT

Need help with separating Full_Name 'Jon Joshua M' as Last_name 'Jon', 'First_name' Joshua, 'Middle_Initial' M.

Re: How to separate full_name Jon Emma M as last_name Jon, first_name Emma, Middle Initial_M

Kathryn_SAS — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 18:15:21 GMT

You can use the SCAN function to do this. This assumes that the delimiter is a space and that the name is always in the same order: last first middle.

data test;
full_name='Jon Joshua M';
last_name=scan(full_name,1,' ');
first_name=scan(full_name,2,' ');
middle_initial=scan(full_name,3,' ');
run;

proc print;
run;

Re: How to separate full_name Jon Emma M as last_name Jon, first_name Emma, Middle Initial_M

PaigeMiller — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 18:40:09 GMT

It also assumes that names always follow a pattern, but how about a Dutch name where the last name is Van Aalen?

Van Aalen Sarah G

and then the rules to find last name as the first "word" fail.

Re: How to separate full_name Jon Emma M as last_name Jon, first_name Emma, Middle Initial_M

SASKiwi — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 20:03:43 GMT

FYI, SAS Data Quality has name parsing algorithms that cater for national differences to do the splitting you want. Of course this is more geared to enterprise-wide solutions as opposed to individual requirements.