[thelist] Name and Address Capitalization

[Seyon]

Message from Tony Light (4/19/2004 09:07 AM)
>Hi, I've got a tricky little problem with a database of names and 
>addresses that are in upper case, but when I use them I need to output in 
>mixed case, suitably capitalized.  To make things more interesting, it is 
>a large database with names and addresses from all over the world (though 
>mainly in the UK).
>
>Simple names like JOHN SMITH => John Smith, are easy enough.
>Names starting with MC can probably always be treated as Scottish, so 
>MCADAM => McAdam.
>MAC is more of a problem. Loads of Scottish MACs can be treated like MC, 
>but what about the exceptions - Macey, Macclesfield, etc.

I had to do something like this a few years ago. My database probably 
wasn't as large or complex as yours. Just about 4000 records. Anyway what I 
ended up doing was writing a tool to process the obvious ones based on 
certain rules, and require me to validate the odd ones. So it could process 
"John Smith" fine, but ask about "David Love III".

Did still involve a small amount of manual work, but certainly less than if 
I'd gone through the entire thing by hand.

regards.

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