Last Name Comma First Name
August 4, 2017
Today’s task is simple:
You are given a file containing one name per line in the format last name comma first name, optionally followed by another comma and a numeral (like Sr., or Jr., or IV), and are convert it to a file containing the names, one name per line, in the format first name, last name and numeral with no commas. You may assume the input is correctly formatted, with optional spaces after each of the two commas.
Your task is to convert a file of names to the correct format. When you are finished, you are welcome to read a suggested solution, or to post your own solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.
Programming Praxis 
perl -p -e 's{([^,]*),\s*([^,]*)(?:,\s*([^,]*?))?\n}{$2 $1 $3\n}'It’s a perl 1-liner – but a bit nasty – probably made this harder than required – as it can cope with no Sr/Jr/ordinal
[sourcecode lang="css"]
(ql:quickload :com.informatimago.common-lisp.cesarum)
(ql:quickload :split-sequence)
(defun transform-name-file (path-with-comma path-without-comma)
(setf (com.informatimago.common-lisp.cesarum.file:string-list-text-file-contents
path-without-comma
:if-does-not-exist :create
:if-exists :supersede)
(mapcar (lambda (line)
(destructuring-bind (name firstname &optional numeral)
(split-sequence:split-sequence #\, line)
(let ((name (string-trim ” ” name))
(firstname (string-trim ” ” firstname))
(numeral (and numeral (string-trim ” ” numeral))))
(format nil “~A ~A~@[ ~A~]” firstname name numeral))))
(com.informatimago.common-lisp.cesarum.file:string-list-text-file-contents path-with-comma))))
(progn
(transform-name-file “20170804–name.data” “20170804–name.txt”)
(values (com.informatimago.common-lisp.cesarum.file:string-list-text-file-contents “20170804–name.data”)
(com.informatimago.common-lisp.cesarum.file:string-list-text-file-contents “20170804–name.txt”)))
–> (“McCarthy,John” “Bush,Georges,Jr.” “Gates, Bill, III” “Newton, John”)
(“John McCarthy” “Georges Bush Jr.” “Bill Gates III” “John Newton”)
[/sourcecode lang="css"]
Julia implementation.
Data screenshot: https://app.box.com/s/121nemup56e4n8au3p0mi8samfr5v14x
Code screenshot: https://app.box.com/s/uekpewsz173j0k2a76lg63xlgirgaalb
I’d post everything here, but it seems that I can’t get the formating right when I include code in this site.
Have a nice weekend!
This is doable in plain old bash
export IFS=,
while read $last $first $num
do echo $first $last $num|xargs
done <file