Question

I have to split a user name into first name and last name, but I don’t know how many elements there may be in the name.
I have some working code, but it seems like it could be optimized.

Does anyone have any suggestions to make this more elegant?

function createMoodleUserNames($fullname){

    $names = explode(' ',$fullname);

    $prefixes = array('Dr.','Ms.','Mr.','Mrs.');

    $names = explode(' ',$name);

    $i = 0;

    if(in_array($names[0],$prefixes)){

        $firstname = $names[0].' '.$names[1];
        unset($names[0]);
        unset($names[1]);

    }else{

        $firstname = $names[0];
        unset($names[0]);

    }

    $lastname = '';

    while($i < count($names)){

        $lastname .= ' '.$names[$i];

        $i++;

    }

    $output = array();
    $output[0] = $firstname;
    $output[1] = $lastname;

    return $output;

}

Answer 1

I am not sure how complex data are you parsing, but this straightforward solution might suit you:

<?php
function parseName($fullName) {
    $parts = preg_split('~\s+~', $fullName);

    $result = array();
    if (!preg_match('~(dr|mr|ms|mrs)\.?~', strToLower($parts[0]))) {
        $result[] = $parts[0];
    } else {
        $result[] = $parts[1];
    }

    $result[] = end($parts);
    return $result;
}

Ignores first part if it is a recognized prefix and takes family name from the very last part.