Splitting a person's name into forename and surname

Question

ok so basically I am asking the question of their name I want this to be one input rather than Forename and Surname.

Now is there any way of splitting this name? and

Answer 1

I would specify a standard format (some forms use them), such as "Please write your name in First name, Surname form".

It makes it easier for you, as names don't usually contain a comma. It also verifies that your users actually enter both first name and surname.

Answer 2

The problem with trying to split the names from a single input is that you won't get the full surname for people with spaces in their surname, and I don't believe you'll be able to write code to manage that completely.

I would recommend that you ask for the names separately if it is at all possible.

Answer 3

You can use str.find() for this.

x=input("enter your name ")
l=x.find(" ")
print("your first name is",x[:l])
print("your last name is",x[l:])

Answer 4

This is a pretty old issue but I found it searching around for a solution to parsing out pieces from a globbed together name.

http://code.google.com/p/python-nameparser/