Separate First and Last Name

Last updated on: August 11, 2009

$name = "John S Smith";

list($fname, $lname) = split(' ', $name,2);

echo "First Name: $fname, Last Name: $lname";

Works with or without middle name.

Comments

Orves

# September 3, 2009

$name = "John S. Doe";
list($fname, $lname) = explode(' ', $name,2);
echo "First Name: $fname, Last Name: $lname";

split() function is deprecated in PHP > 5.3

Reply ↓

Yoosuf

Permalink to comment# October 18, 2011

true and agree with you

@Chriss, better to update it
hema

Permalink to comment# February 25, 2013

thanks

Mike

# October 2, 2009

Or maybe something more like this to literally get their first and last name, no matter how much junk they enter

$name = "James Samuel Murphy 'I took that waaaaay too far' Adams";
list( $fname, $mname, $lname ) = explode( ' ', $name, 3 );		
if ( is_null($lname) ) //Meaning only two names were entered...
{
    $lastname = $mname;
}
else
{
    $lname = explode( ' ', $lname );
    $size = sizeof($lname);
    $lastname = $lname[$size-1];
}
echo "First Name: $fname, Last Name: $lastname";

Reply ↓

Emmanuel

# September 25, 2010

Perhaps a better way to go would be to strip multiple whitespace from the name before exploding it.
Like this:

list($fname,$lname) = explode(‘ ‘, str_replace(‘/\s+/gi’,’ ‘,$name), 2);

Reply ↓

Bretticus

# June 9, 2011

Note that with the limit in place, $lname always ends up with the middle names and/or initials. Also, to make this accurate with the limit param in place, you need to ensure that there are no extra spaces. preg_split with a look ahead assertion can solve these two issues with one line of code still:

list($fname,$lname) = preg_split('/\s+(?=[^\s]+$)/', $name, 2);

Reply ↓

Immanuelprabhu

# July 24, 2012

Hi, help me to split my name IMMANUELPRABHU JOSHUA into First name, Middle name & Surname

Regards
Immanuel.J

Reply ↓

ubaid

# June 21, 2013

Now time is for using explode() function :).

Reply ↓

Preet

# October 29, 2014

Easy just do this:


$msgString = "Manpreet Singh Marwaha";

$result = explode(" ",$msgString);

echo $result[0]; //Manpreet
echo $result[1]; //Singh
echo $result[2]; //Marwaha

easy!!!

Reply ↓

Posting Code

We highly encourage you to post problematic HTML/CSS/JavaScript over on CodePen and include the link in your post. It's much easier to see, understand, and help with when you do that.

Markdown is supported, so you can write inline code like `<div>this</div>` or multiline blocks of code in in triple backtick fences like this:

```
<script>
  function example() {
    element.innerHTML = "<div>code</div>";
  }
</script>
```

Copy and paste this code: micuno *

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

What now? I have some ideas for you.

Comments

Leave a Comment

Posting Code

What now? I have some ideas for you.

We can do the real footer now.