If NAME and HAVENT_GOT_A_CLUE can both contain spaces, then the instance where there is no 'prependition' will cause you real problems IF the last field can start with a letter. But if it can't, here's what I'd do: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $Prep_Re = join '|',('VAN DER','VAN DE','DEN','DE','VAN');

while (<DATA>) {
  s/\s{2,}/ /g;
  s/^\s*(.*?)\s*$/$1/;

  if ( /(.+?) ($Prep_Re) ?((?:[^A-Za-z].*)?)/ ) {
    my ($Name,$Prep,$Unknown) = ($1,$2,$3);
    print "$Name == $Prep == $Unknown\n";
  }
  elsif ( /(.+) ([^A-Za-z].*)?/ ) {
    my ($Name,$Prep,$Unknown) = ($1,'',$2);
    print "$Name == $Prep == $Unknown\n";
  }
  else {
    print "No idea for $_\n";
  }
}
__DATA__
WINTER DE   <A240>
ZANDEN VAN DER     ŤAť
JENSEN  230
WOODHEAD  <D>
BRINK    130,-
HEYDIER DEN  <240>
SMITSER  (4X115PJ)
LINDEN VAN DER
MOTEL GOLDEN LEEUW <A225>

[download]

.02

ps - the nearest word I could find was cognomen, but I bet that's not right either :)

--
seek(JOB,$$LA,0);

In reply to Re: Can this be parsed ? by cLive ;-)
in thread Can this be parsed ? by ChOas

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