Re: Question(s) on converting names and addresses to UNICODE

["Jim Franz" <franz400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The one time I think it is good to separate name fields is in name matching 
routines. In the US, when trying to match their legal "social security or 
tax" name, it's important to know 1st middle and last as it was legally 
registered.
KIM SMITH
KIM A SMITH
Kim AMY SMITH
KIM AMY SMITH-ROSEN
and these are only "American" names.
What are the application requirements ? If this is a global company and US 
or other goverment Customs (or even payroll) involved-may have to break the 
names down.
(this has been an interesting discussion)
Jim Franz

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Klement" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 3:27 AM
Subject: Re: Question(s) on converting names and addresses to UNICODE


> Hi Alan,
>
> Handling unicode is at once both easy and hard.  To make your database
> fields into unicode fields is easy.  Just declare them as graphic and
> give them a CCSID like 1200...
>
> How to populate them is a different matter altogether.  Especially if
> you are using legacy user interfaces, like 5250.
>
> Alan Shore wrote:
> > what would be considered a good "size" for fields like
> > first name
> > last name
> > Address lines
>
> Yikes... that is an incredibly complicated question.  When you are
> talking about the USA, it's often reasonable to code a "first name",
> "middle initial" and "last name" field.  But even in the USA this is
> often inadequate!  Many folks have multiple first names, multiple middle
> names or even multiple (often hyphenated) last names.
>
> And that's just the USA!  In many cultures, the "first" name (the name
> printed first) is actually the family name, whereas the last name (the
> name printed last) is the given name.  Is it reasonable to refer to the
> fields as first and last?
>
> What of Arabic names that can have many parts?  (I've seen some as long
> as 10 words.)
>
> Spanish/Hispanic names often have two surnames.
>
> Googling finds the following discussion on Stack Overflow:
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/128099/what-is-the-longest-human-name-you-can-expect
> (or, http://tinyurl.com/6lpvfj )
>
> The recommendation seems to be:  don't separate the name into pieces
> (first, last, etc).  Instead, just have one field for a person's name,
> and let it include their given name, their family name, etc, as they
> prefer it to be.  Then, make the field very long :)
>
> Read the stack overflow thread... if nothing else, it's thought provoking.
> --
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