Separating text into separate variables

[marleeakerson]

Hello, 

I have a variable with first and last names and I am trying to separate them into two separate variables. See the sample data below: 

Name 

Smith Joe

Reynolds Jack 

Anderson Amy 

But I want the data to read: 

Last Name                          First Name 

Smith                                        Joe 

Reynolds                                   Jack 

Anderson                                   Amy

Does anyone have any advice for me? Thank you!

[PaigeMiller]

The SCAN function will do this for the simple cases you have shown.

firstname=scan(name,2);
lastname=scan(name,1);

But things get very confusing if the last name has a space in it, or if the first name has a space in it. So, the above really doesn't constitute a real-word solution. You need to define the problem much more precisely.