you need to strip the string apart using either regex which is
difficult to use or split_part()
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/functions-string.html
The update will look something like this...
Update customer set custfirstname = split_part(Name, ' ', 1) ,
custmiddlename = split_part(Name, ' ', 2) , custlastname =
split_part(Name, ' ', 3)
split_apart can give funky results if the data is not uniform.
Joshua wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a quick questions... consider the following information:
>
> I have a table 'customers' which looks like the following:
>
> firstname | middlename
> -------------------|--------------------------
> Johnathan C Mark S
> Joshua
> Susan T
> Jennifer
> Marcus D
> Mike G
> Ted
> William R
>
> I would like to write a SQL update statement that yields the following
> results:
>
> firstname | middlename
> -------------------|--------------------------
> Johnathan C Mark S
> Joshua Susan T
> Jennifer
> Marcus D
> Mike G
> Ted
> William R
>
>
> Basically, this... I need to take the middle initial from the
> 'firstname' field and place it in the 'middlename' field - that is if
> only there is a middle initial in the 'firstname' field.
>
> Please let me know the best way to write the UPDATE statement. If you
> have any questions or need more info from me please feel free to email.
>
> Thanks!!!
>
>
>
>
>