generalize_names: convert names into a generalized format

A function that converts a name into a general format <last_name><separator><firstname letter(s)> (all lowercase).

from mlxtend.text import generalize_names

Overview

A function that converts a name into a general format <last_name><separator><firstname letter(s)> (all lowercase), which is useful if data is collected from different sources and is supposed to be compared or merged based on name identifiers. E.g., if names are stored in a pandas DataFrame column, the apply function can be used to generalize names: df['name'] = df['name'].apply(generalize_names)

References

  • -

Example 1 - Defaults

from mlxtend.text import generalize_names

generalize_names('Pozo, José Ángel')

'pozo j'

generalize_names('José Pozo')

'pozo j'

generalize_names('José Ángel Pozo')

'pozo j'

Example 2 - Optional Parameters

from mlxtend.text import generalize_names

generalize_names("Eto'o, Samuel", firstname_output_letters=2)

'etoo sa'

generalize_names("Eto'o, Samuel", firstname_output_letters=0)

'etoo'

generalize_names("Eto'o, Samuel", output_sep=', ')

'etoo, s'

API

generalize_names(name, output_sep=' ', firstname_output_letters=1)

Generalize a person's first and last name.

Returns a person's name in the format <last_name><separator><firstname letter(s)> (all lowercase)

Parameters

  • name : str

    Name of the player

  • output_sep : str (default: ' ')

    String for separating last name and first name in the output.

  • firstname_output_letters : int

    Number of letters in the abbreviated first name.

Returns

  • gen_name : str

    The generalized name.

Examples

For usage examples, please see https://rasbt.github.io/mlxtend/user_guide/text/generalize_names/