Re: Converting names & street names

whoa, whoa, whoa
if anyone from marketing is reading my e-mails over my shoulder.......
we have enough projects that we are NOT working on as it is
Country code we have
formatting of Foreign postal codes we have
validating zip codes, Canadian Postal codes we have
the other stuff you mention, well marketing is NEVER going to hear about
them from me.
Thanks for your input anyway Booth.

Alan

midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 08/31/2006 11:41:48 AM:

hee hee..  At least that scopes the problem, and may break loose some
budget money and ideas that will resolve a lot of problems.  I wonder
what would happen if people sat and talked about nagging little things
that aren't quite right with names & addresses.  You using a 9-digit
zip, still?  Do you have a country code?  A seasonal winter/summer
address?  A field for telemarketing "greeting name"?  fer instance.

Alan Shore wrote:

Thanks Booth. ALL good suggestions. Right now we are looking into the

name

and address due to this letter project someone in marketing has thought

of.

However your idea " a "Customer Personalization Program" with a

Signature

Program with special features.
awards, and whatever else they do" might make some sense to them.


Alan Shore

NBTY, Inc
(631) 244-2000 ext. 5019
AShore@xxxxxxxx

midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 08/31/2006 11:25:35 AM:

No program is going to fix their spelling mistakes.  That error rate
isn't going to go up or down, probably, whatever you do.

Now might be a really good time to rethink the whole issue and set

some

goals and rules.  You haven't even mentioned the first name, last name
problems.  Nor have you mentioned e-mail, cell phone number and

whether

or not they want occasional text messages with breaking news.  It may
very well be that in the end you need new fields, including a
"signature" field, where the person's name is properly cased and
reflects the way the user prefers it.  If so, existing data can remain
untouched and the Marketing Department can come up with a "Customer
Personalization Program" with a Signature Program with special

features.

awards, and whatever else they do.  Then they can get some bang for

the

buck?


This is just an opinion, but maybe there is some lemonade to be made
from those lemons?

Alan Shore wrote:

Yes - in principle I totally agree, however, with numerous telephone
operators taking orders, there's bound to be someone who is going to

be

insulted because of spelling mistakes


Alan Shore

NBTY, Inc
(631) 244-2000 ext. 5019
AShore@xxxxxxxx

midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 08/30/2006 05:38:43 PM:

Some where along the line some one enters the name.  Going forward,

it

could be entered correctly at the time of entry.  The idea of an
auxiliary file for properly cased name and address seems like an
on-going burden.  It would seem reasonable at some point to make a
decision to proper-case names & addresses. including street, city, &
state.  There are a lot of reasons for making a change-over, and

very

few that I can think of to stay with the constraints of a 132-hammer
printer.

I say this because of always finding that in the end, solving it
programatically never really solved the headache.  Some day the

boss's

wife's mother's best friend is going to be insulted, and that is not
going to ever be a good day.



Alan Shore wrote:

Unfortunately Booth - it is NOT a one time deal. Our customer base

grows in

leaps and bounds day by day.



Alan Shore

NBTY, Inc
(631) 244-2000 ext. 5019
AShore@xxxxxxxx

midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 08/30/2006 04:41:19 PM:

How many total names in the file, and is this a one-time

change-over?

It is amazing how fast a good operator can go through a thousand

names,

if you present them for her/him to read & change easily on the

screen.

If its a one time deal, a brute force solution may be a lot

cheaper

and

quicker in the end.



Scott Klement wrote:

Thanks for your reply Tommy, but the main problem I am going to

have

is

with the names like O'Donnell McGuyver etc where the name

contains

more

than one upper case character.

Even worse is something  like "Herman Van der Staey".  In that

case

the

last name is 3 words, and one of them isn't capitalized, but the

others

are.  I can't think of an algorithm that would understand how to

properly

capitalize all names.

The truth is, names don't follow a set pattern for

capitalization.

You

have to deall with them on a case-by-case basis.  So you'd almost

need

a

database of every possible name and how it's capitalized....  or

at

least

a database of the ones that don't follow the rule of "first

letter

of

every word."   This wouldn't be a minor undertaking.

I suggest looking for a commercial package unless a "close

enough"

routine

is acceptable.

--
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www.martinvt.com
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