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  1. #1
    UTS is offline Novice
    Windows 7 32bit Access 2010 32bit
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    Split Firstname/Secondname when sometimes only firstname

    N00B here,

    I have a field GIVEN_NAMES with first name and middle name separated by a space. Some entries have only the first name.

    So, running this query

    FirstName = Left([GIVEN_NAMES]), " ")

    doesn't work, as it leaves the output blank when it cannot find the separating space.

    Any ideas how to separate these?



    In addition, if I run this as an update query, it doesn't work, but also places a "0" in the GIVEN_NAMES field. Lucky I backed up my table!

    Cheers,

  2. #2
    RuralGuy's Avatar
    RuralGuy is offline Administrator
    Windows 7 64bit Access 2010 32bit
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    Have you looked into using an IIF(InStr([GIVEN_NAMES]," "),...

  3. #3
    UTS is offline Novice
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    Have you looked into using an IIF(InStr([GIVEN_NAMES]," "),...

    Could you please expand on this? I thought IIF was more a logical function.

    Cheers,

  4. #4
    RuralGuy's Avatar
    RuralGuy is offline Administrator
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    Try:
    FirstName = IIF(InStr([GIVEN_NAMES]," "),Left([GIVEN_NAMES]), " "),[GIVEN_NAMES])

  5. #5
    UTS is offline Novice
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    Still could not get it to work. It pulls out the FirstName OK, ONLY when there is a SecondName present, i.e. two words separated by a space. But when there is only a single word (FirstName) it doesn't extract it as there is no space.

    Anyway, I managed to get the job done by pulling out the FirstName and then deleting those records, which left the single FirstName in the GIVEN_NAMES field, which I then copied across to the SecondName field.

    I know - a bit messy - but it worked.

    Cheers,

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