How to split the name string in mysql?

Question

How to split the name string in mysql ?

E.g.:

name
-----
Sachin ramesh tendulkar
Rahul dravid

Split the name like firstname,middlename,lastname:

firstname   middlename    lastname
---------  ------------   ------------
sachin     ramesh         tendulkar
rahul      dravid

Answer 1

I've seperated this answer into two(2) methods. The first method will separate your fullname field into first, middle, and last names. The middle name will show as NULL if there is no middle name.

SELECT
   SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(fullname, ' ', 1), ' ', -1) AS first_name,
   If(  length(fullname) - length(replace(fullname, ' ', ''))>1,  
       SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(fullname, ' ', 2), ' ', -1) ,NULL) 
           as middle_name,
   SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(fullname, ' ', 3), ' ', -1) AS last_name
FROM registeredusers

This second method considers the middle name as part of the lastname. We will only select a firstname and lastname column from your fullname field.

SELECT
   SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(fullname, ' ', 1), ' ', -1) AS first_name,
    TRIM( SUBSTR(fullname, LOCATE(' ', fullname)) ) AS last_name
FROM registeredusers

There's a bunch of cool things you can do with substr, locate, substring_index, etc. Check the manual for some real confusion. http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/string-functions.html