Re: Sorting a list of names
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
 - Subject: [mg112287] Re: Sorting a list of names
 - From: Albert Retey <awnl at gmx-topmail.de>
 - Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2010 06:17:45 -0400 (EDT)
 - References: <i64ki5$3c1$1@smc.vnet.net>
 
Am 07.09.2010 08:02, schrieb Jon Joseph:
> All: I have a list of names read in as strings with first names first. 
> Can anyone suggest a mechanism to sort the list by the last names with 
> the final output being the entire name?
> 
> Starting array:
> 
> names = {"Cole Dockter", "Mackenzie Christensen", "Rebecca Eastham", 
> "David Gartzke", \
> "Matthew Lundberg", "Tyler Hullett", "Cecilia Ford", "Grant Patterson"}
> 
> Ending array:
> 
> names_sorted = {"Mackenzie Christensen", "Cole Dockter", "Rebecca 
> Eastham", "Cecilia Ford", "David Gartzke", "Tyler Hullett", "Matthew 
> Lundberg", "Grant Patterson"}
> 
> As a note Sort[StringSplit[names][[All, 2]]] does exactly what I want 
> except it drops the first name on output.=
I think:
SortBy[names, Last[StringSplit[#]] &]
would probably the most obvious thing to use (using Last instead of
[[2]] might be more robust when there are middle names or missing first
names)...
hth,
albert