Re: Parsing out first names

I wouldn't use a regex (well sorta). I'd use a split on whitespace. This also makes it easy to get last names by popping off the last value.

Also watch your brackets. You want () for an array.

my @names = ( "Mark K.", "Bob H", "Kurt", "Mary Kay K",
"Mary Jo Z.",  "Mary Jo" );

foreach ( @names ) {

  my ($f_name) = (split)[0];
  my ($l_name) = (split)[-1];
  print "$f_name \n";

}
[download]

grep

One dead unjugged rabbit fish later

Comment on Re: Parsing out first names Select or Download Code

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Re^2: Parsing out first names by driver8 (Scribe) on Oct 13, 2006 at 07:17 UTC
This is a good thought, but it only prints out: `Mark Bob Kurt Mary Mary Mary` [download] which is only the first part of the first names--some of them are not complete.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Parsing out first names by Hofmator (Curate) on Oct 13, 2006 at 07:42 UTC
So do what grep already hinted at, split and keep only the parts you want: `foreach ( @names ) { my @name_parts = split; pop @name_parts if $name_parts[-1] =~ /^[a-zA-Z]\.?$/; # throw last +name away my $f_name = join ' ', @name_parts; print "$f_name\n"; }` [download] Updated code to reflect Not_a_Number's correction, thanks! -- Hofmator Code written by Hofmator and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Parsing out first names by Not_a_Number (Prior) on Oct 13, 2006 at 09:19 UTC
`pop @name_parts; # throw last name away` Look at the OP's list of names again: some of them are only first names. This code throws "Kurt" away completely, as well as "Jo" in the second "Mary Jo". Update: That line can be replaced by: `pop @name_parts if $name_parts[-1] =~ /^[a-zA-Z]\.?$/;`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Parsing out first names by driver8 (Scribe) on Oct 13, 2006 at 12:03 UTC
That works, but now you just have an obfuscated version of `foreach my $name ( @names ) { $name =~ s/ [a-zA-Z]\.?$//; print "$name \n"; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]