I have what I feel is the stupidest question. I'm working with name fields in a flat file. Most of them are fine, but some have double names. For example, a field may have "John Smith John Smith". I need to take the first 2 words of the string, "John Smith" (or first and last name), and check the rest of the string for another occurence of that name. Then I need to chop off the 2nd instance of the name.

How do I do that? Thanks in advance, and please have mercy on me. I really can't figure this out. I'm sure that, as usual, it's something simple and stupid I'm overlooking.

Dev Goddess
Developer / Analyst / Criminal Mastermind

"Size doesn't matter. It's all about speed and performance."


In reply to How do I check a string for dupicate text? by devgoddess

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