If a name field source data file contains parts of a name that you want to separate, use the NamePart Function to do the following:

After you have completed the planning, write an expression to tell the map which portion of the parsed data goes into each target field.

In the example above, the source field that contains the full name is "Name". The fields in the target file that contain the name parts have been given field names that match the corresponding part of the name. The target expression in each of the fields has been written to instruct the map to place a specific name part in that field in the target data file.

Where "f" places the first names in the First Name field, "m" places the middle initial (or name) in the Middle Initial field, and "l" places the last name in the Last Name field, etc.

After the transformation is run, the names in every record are parsed into the separate fields in the target data file.

There may be some instances where you need to reverse the order of the first and last names in a field that contains a full name. For example, the name appears in your source data file as Smith John, and you want the name to appear as John Smith in your target file.

You can write an expression for that field as follows.

Where "NAME" is the field name in your source file that contains the person's name. And "f l" instructs the map to position the name in "firstname lastname" order in the Name field in your target file.

After the transformation is run, the names are in "firstname lastname" order in every record in your target data file.