php 51 lines · 8 steps

Parsing a full name into components in PHP

A parser peels titles and suffixes off a name, then splits the rest into first, middle, and last.

Explained by highlit

Intermediate string-parsing arrays normalization edge-cases

1<?php
2 
3class NameParser
4{
5    private const TITLES = [
6        'mr', 'mrs', 'ms', 'miss', 'dr', 'prof', 'rev', 'sir', 'madam',
7    ];
8 
9    private const SUFFIXES = [
10        'jr', 'sr', 'ii', 'iii', 'iv', 'v', 'phd', 'md', 'esq',
11    ];
12 
13    public function parse(string $fullName): array
14    {
15        $parts = preg_split('/\s+/', trim($fullName), -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
16 
17        $result = [
18            'title' => null,
19            'first' => null,
20            'middle' => null,
21            'last' => null,
22            'suffix' => null,
23        ];
24 
25        if (empty($parts)) {
26            return $result;
27        }
28 
29        $normalize = static fn (string $word): string => rtrim(strtolower($word), '.');
30 
31        if (count($parts) > 1 && in_array($normalize($parts[0]), self::TITLES, true)) {
32            $result['title'] = array_shift($parts);
33        }
34 
35        if (count($parts) > 1 && in_array($normalize(end($parts)), self::SUFFIXES, true)) {
36            $result['suffix'] = array_pop($parts);
37        }
38 
39        $result['first'] = array_shift($parts);
40 
41        if (!empty($parts)) {
42            $result['last'] = array_pop($parts);
43        }
44 
45        if (!empty($parts)) {
46            $result['middle'] = implode(' ', $parts);
47        }
48 
49        return $result;
50    }
51}

01 / 01

STEP 01

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Three takeaways

1Normalizing tokens before comparison lets you match messy input against a clean lookup list.
2Peeling known pieces off both ends of an array simplifies whatever ambiguous middle remains.
3Guarding each mutation with a count check keeps single-word and empty inputs from breaking the logic.

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