How Can I Split a Single Name Column into First and Last Name Columns Using SQL?

SQL solution: split single column value into multiple columns

Splitting a single column value into multiple columns is a common scenario in data processing. Here is a SQL solution:

<code class="language-sql">SELECT
  CASE
    WHEN name LIKE '% %' THEN SUBSTRING(name, 1, CHARINDEX(' ', name) - 1)
    ELSE name
  END AS first_name,
  CASE
    WHEN name LIKE '% %' THEN SUBSTRING(name, CHARINDEX(' ', name) + 1, LEN(name))
  END AS last_name
FROM
  YourTable;</code>

This query uses the CASE statement to determine whether there are spaces in the name column. If a space is found, the first conditional statement extracts the characters before the space and assigns them to the first_name column. For values ​​without spaces, assign itself directly.

For the last_name column, a similar approach is used. However, to avoid including the middle name, we use the SUBSTRING function to directly extract the part after the spaces. This ensures that the surname is extracted accurately even if there are more than two words in the original name.

The query results will contain two columns: first_name and last_name. It's important to note that this method is not perfect and may not handle complex name formats perfectly. However, it provides a good starting point for splitting a single column value into multiple columns using SQL.

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