Unlike street patterns that simply convert an inbound attribute combination to another version on output, name patterns perform an additional function. They often contain multiple individual names on the same line. In some cases, only one last name may have been given along with three first names, and it is implied that the last name should be associated with all three first names.
One of the powerful features of the parsing engine uses parsing customization pattern structures to understand these relationships. Assume you have this record:
JOHN SMITH & MARY & ROBERT
There are three individuals given but only one last name. In order to ensure that each first name receives a last name on output, a pattern can be constructed to perform this association:
‘GVN-NM1 ALPHA CTR GVN-NM1 CTR GVN-NM1’ PATTERN NAME REC=’GVN-NM1(1) LAST(123) CTR(2) GVN-NM1(2) CTR(3) GVN-NM1(3)’
The numbers in the parentheses following each attribute value in the recode line indicate the physical name to which that particular token value is associated. For the last name attribute, the values in parentheses indicate that this token is associated with all three individuals.