What do you want to learn today?
Treehouse is the best place to learn web design, web development, and iOS.

Code Snippet

Home » Code Snippets » PHP » Separate First and Last Name

Separate First and Last Name

$name = "John S Smith";

list($fname, $lname) = split(' ', $name,2);

echo "First Name: $fname, Last Name: $lname";

Works with or without middle name.

Subscribe to The Thread

  1. Orves
    $name = "John S. Doe";
list($fname, $lname) = explode(' ', $name,2);
echo "First Name: $fname, Last Name: $lname";

    split() function is deprecated in PHP > 5.3

    Reply ↓
  2. Mike

    Or maybe something more like this to literally get their first and last name, no matter how much junk they enter

    $name = "James Samuel Murphy 'I took that waaaaay too far' Adams";
list( $fname, $mname, $lname ) = explode( ' ', $name, 3 );
if ( is_null($lname) ) //Meaning only two names were entered...
{
    $lastname = $mname;
}
else
{
    $lname = explode( ' ', $lname );
    $size = sizeof($lname);
    $lastname = $lname[$size-1];
}
echo "First Name: $fname, Last Name: $lastname";
    Reply ↓
  3. Emmanuel

    Perhaps a better way to go would be to strip multiple whitespace from the name before exploding it.
    Like this:

    list($fname,$lname) = explode(‘ ‘, str_replace(‘/\s+/gi’,’ ‘,$name), 2);

    Reply ↓
  4. Bretticus

    Note that with the limit in place, $lname always ends up with the middle names and/or initials. Also, to make this accurate with the limit param in place, you need to ensure that there are no extra spaces. preg_split with a look ahead assertion can solve these two issues with one line of code still:

    list($fname,$lname) = preg_split('/\s+(?=[^\s]+$)/', $name, 2);
    Reply ↓

Speak, my friend

At this moment, you have an awesome opportunity* to be the person your mother always wanted you to be: kind, helpful, and smart. Do that, and we'll give you a big ol' gold star for the day (literally).

Posting tips:
  • You can use basic HTML
  • When posting code, please turn all
    < characters into &lt;
  • If the code is multi-line, use
    <pre><code></code></pre>
Thank you,
~ The Management ~