= people

Parses names into parts. Loosely based on the Lingua-EN-NameParser Perl module.

= How to install

  sudo gem install people

= How to use

  require 'people'

  np = People::NameParser.new

  name = np.parse( "Matthew E Ericson" )
  puts name[:parsed]
  puts name[:orig]
  puts name[:first]
  puts name[:last]

If name successfully parses, name[:parsed] is set to true.

Available parts are :title, :first, :middle, :last, :suffix, :first2, :middle2, :title2, :suffix2, :orig, :match_type

By default, it will try to proper case names. If you want to leave the capitalization alone, pass :case_mode => 'leave' or for uppercase, 'upper'.

  np = People::NameParser.new( :case_mode => 'proper' )
  np = People::NameParser.new( :case_mode => 'leave' )
  np = People::NameParser.new( :case_mode => 'upper' )

If you have names like "John and Jane Doe", pass :couples => true

  np = People::NameParser.new( :couples => true, :case_mode => 'upper' )

  name = np.parse( "John and Jane Doe" )
  puts name[:first]
  puts name[:first2]
  puts name[:last]

Try it out online at http://people.ericson.net 

Send suggestions to mericson at ericson dot net.


== Copyright

Copyright (c) 2009 Matthew Ericson. See LICENSE for details.