Author Topic: Include middle name in sort name (Read 2013 times)

JoopSJ · January 24, 2010, 02:31:26 am

Civi offers 3 core fields to store contact names: First name, Middle name , LastName.
In the Dutch translation these fields are used as follows:
Initials (Titelatuur en voorletters), Middle name (tussenvoegsel- means: insertion), Lastname.

Vincent Willem van Gogh would be entered as follows:

firstname: V. W.
Middle name: van
Lastname: Gogh

Civi will show the sort name: Gogh, V.W.
It should be however: Gogh van, V.W.

In Dutch "Vincent Willem" are the first name(s) and "Van" is a middle name. The full last name is composed by adding Middle name and Lastname.
I don't know if this unique to the Dutch language but, because of this construction, ideally the Class for sort_name should be adapted to include the middle name: [last_name][middle_name][,][first_name]

A work around would be to enter "van Gogh" into the last_name field, but then "van Gogh" would be sorted by "v" while it should be by "G".

If the ideal sorting should include the middle name I will file a feature request.
Thanx

I also saw this post. It might be related: http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php?topic=8202.0

Donald Lobo · January 24, 2010, 09:34:16 am

a couple of options for this:

1. we should make sort_name / display_name hookable functions, so folks can change the way they are built (i.e. the dutch can add the middle name etc)

2. in the short term, you can add a trigger to the database to fix both the sort and display name when a contact record is inserted/updated. I think this is a good quick fix

lobo

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Author Topic: Include middle name in sort name (Read 2013 times)

JoopSJ

Include middle name in sort name

Donald Lobo

Re: Include middle name in sort name