name-tools 0.1.3

Library for manipulating and comparing (English) names

A Python library for manipulating and comparing English, Western-style personal names.

Released under a BSD-style license.

Source: http://github.com/sunlightlabs/name_tools

Installation

To install from PyPI run

pip install name_tools

or

easy_install name_tools

To install from a source package run

python setup.py install

Usage

name_tools.split(name) breaks a name into 4 (possibly empty) parts, representing prefixes (‘Mr.’, ‘Dr.’, etc.), a ‘first part’ (given names, middle names, middle initials), a last name, and suffixes (‘Jr.’, ‘III’, ‘Ph.D’, etc.)

>>> import name_tools
>>> name_tools.split("President Barack Hussein Obama II")
('President', 'Barack Hussein', 'Obama', 'II')
>>> name_tools.split("Obama, President Barack H., II")
('President', 'Barack H', 'Obama', 'II')
>>> name_tools.split("Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr., USN")
('Fleet Admiral', 'William Frederick', 'Halsey', 'Jr., USN')
>>> name_tools.split("Dick van Dyke")
('', 'Dick', 'van Dyke', '')

name_tools.canonicalize(name) returns a name in a canonical format: ‘Prefixes First Last, Suffixes’, with extra spaces removed and words capitalized.

>>> name_tools.canonicalize('  WASHBURNE,  zoe alleyne')
'Zoe Alleyne Washburne'
>>> name_tools.canonicalize('DR. simon tam')
'Dr. Simon Tam'
>>> name_tools.canonicalize(' thurston b. howell iii')
'Thurston B. Howell, III'

name_tools.match(name1, name2) provides a measure of the similarity between two name, considering factors such as differing word order (‘Bond, James’ and ‘James Bond’), use of initials (‘J. R. R. Tolkien’ and ‘John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’) and various titles and honorifics (‘Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr., USN’, and ‘William Frederick Halsey’).

>>> name_tools.match('Eric Schmidt', 'Eric Schmidt')
1.0
>>> name_tools.match('Bob Dole', 'Dole, Bob')
0.98
>>> name_tools.match("Mr. X", "X")
0.95
>>> name_tools.match('Jeff Tweedy', 'J Tweedy')
0.9
>>> name_tools.match('Ferris Bueller', 'Bueller')
0.8
>>> name_tools.match('John Smith', 'John Johnson')
0.0