Question

Often times data is not always exactly in the format you need. For this exercise you will write a

function in Python that parses a string containing a name into its constituent parts: a first name and a last

name. What makes this exercise interesting is that the name string may be formatted in one of

two ways:

"Last, First"

"First Last"

To complete this exercise, you should create a function and comment appropriately. For technical

inspiration look at the in operator, split, and find string methods.

Answer 1

Code:

Code as text:

def parseName(name):

''' this functions parses a name string into two strings of

first and last name.

Input: a string containing name formatted

Return: two strings containing first and last name

'''

# check if name has "," in it, if yes then split by ","

if name.find(',') != -1:

last, first = name.split(', ')

else: # else split by space " "

first, last = name.split(' ')

return first, last # return first and last names

# test the function

name = input("Enter name: ")

first, last = parseName(name)

print("The name is: ", first, last)

Sample run:

P.s. ask any doubts in comments and don't forget to rate the answer.

'1 HIT +5: def parseName (name) : this functions parses a name string into two strings of first and last name. Input: a string containing name formatted Return: two strings containing first and last name, # check if name has "," in it, if yes then split by "," if name.find(',') != -1: last, first = name.split(, '), else: # else split by space "" first, last = name.split(" "); return first, last # return first and last names # test the function print('Test 1') first, last = parseName("Jane Doe") # name space seperated print('First name: ', first) print('Last name: ', last) print('Test 2') first, last = parseName('Doe, Jane') # name comma seperated print('First name: ', first) print('Last name: ', last) 24 25 26

Test 1 First name: Jane Last name: Doe Test 2 First name: Jane Last name: Doe