Upper Lower Case Formula for Surnames 1

[crabsodyinblue]

Hi

Is there any known formula for converting or validating Surnames to Upper Lower Case for mainly British surnames that could be coded into a Cobol program.

It is fairly easy to convert more standard surnames by inspecting the surname and convert the first character of the name to UPPER case but problems arise in what action should be taken when coming across more unusual names.

Here is a few examples to try and explain what I mean

if JONES was keyed in it should be shown Jones

but when you have names like MCCLOY or MACDONALD they should be represented as McCloy and MacDonald

Further complications arise with double barrelled hyphenated names like Ashcroft-Price and also names with unique characters in them like O'BOYLE , O'BRIEN , D'ARCY

or names that are non-British in origin like LE BLOND , LE TISSIER , VAN DER VELDT , DU BOSKY, DU PONI, DE BOER

Also some names may have suffixes added to the end of them like JNR , JR (JNR) , SNR (SNR)


I just wondered if anyone had to perform a similar task , and if there is any hard and fast rule. All the names provided as an example are actual valid surnames in the Local Telephone directory.

Regards

 

[winzip]

I am not certain about 'hard and fast' rules. But that is a very interesting case you present. I would say you hit upon an idea there by saying the names you gave came from a telephone directory.

I was about to say that if you're familiar with CIF (customer information) software you should find there what they would usually call 'name-scrub' programs and I am almost certain these name-scrubs contain some form of the algorithm you are looking for. And like I said - you hit upon an in idea - a phone directory software might have the same name-scrubbing programs.

These are specialized programs you are looking for - if you succeed in writing one on your own you will become a wealthy man. Good luck!

 

[crabsodyinblue]

Thanks for the reply

I read/browsed through the Phone directory for residential phone numbers for Tayside , Scotland.

However British Telecom seem to bypass the problem of Upper-Lower Case by defaulting all surnames entirely to upper case. However I was looking to have all names in Upper-Lower Case for Cosmetic show, and in keeping with the layout of the prompts in the various screens in the programs for a payroll system.

 

[ceh4702]

It is a lot easier to store the names in upper & lower case than convert them. You have to make up rules for the exceptions like the name "Di Paolo"; that is a good one. You may get a program to work for 99% of the names. We stored all of our names as "Last First MI JR" in one field on the mainframe and it is difficult to separate the names out. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.