=head1 NAME

Lingua::EN::NameParse - routines for manipulating a persons name

=head1 SYNOPSIS

   use Lingua::EN::NameParse qw(clean case_surname);

   my %args = 
   (
      salutation  => 'Dear',
      sal_default => 'Friend',
      auto_clean  => 1,
      force_case  => 1,
      lc_prefix   => 1,
      initials    => 3   
   );

   my $name = new Lingua::EN::NameParse(%args); 

   $error = $name->parse("MR AC DE SILVA");

   %my_name = $name->components;
   $surname = $my_name{surname_1}; # DE SILVA

   $correct_casing = $name->case_all; # Mr AC de Silva

   %name = $name->case_components;
   
   $lc_prefix = 0;
   $correct_case = &case_surname("DE SILVA-MACNAY",$lc_prefix); # De Silva-MacNay

   $good_name = &clean("Bad Na9me   "); # "Bad Name"

   $name->salutation; # Dear Mr de Silva

   %my_properties = $name->properties;
   $number_surnames = $my_properties{number}; # 1
   $bad_input = $my_properties{non_matching};


=head1 DESCRIPTION

This module takes as input a person or persons name in 
free format text such as,

    Mr AB & M/s CD MacNay-Smith
    MR J.L. D'ANGELO
    Estate Of The Late Lieutenant Colonel AB Van Der Heiden

and attempts to parse it. If successful, the name is broken
down into components and useful functions can be performed like :

- converting upper or lower case values to name case (Mr AB MacNay   )
- creating a personalised greeting or salutation     (Dear Mr MacNay )
- extracting the names individual components         (Mr,AB,MacNay   )
- determining the type of format the name is in      (Mr_A_Smith     )

If the name cannot be parsed you have the option of cleaning the name
of bad characters, or extracting any portion that was parsed and the 
portion that failed.

This module can be used for analysing and improving the quality of
lists of names.

=head1 REQUIRES

Perl, version 5.001 or higher and Parse::RecDescent


=head1 HOW TO INSTALL

    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make test
    make install

                  
=head1 AUTHOR

NameParse was written by Kim Ryan <kimaryan@ozemail.com.au>.

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1999 Kim Ryan. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it 
and/or modify it under the terms of the Perl Artistic License
(see http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html).

=cut


