getInit: Create Name Initials

In LimaRAF/plantR: Managing Species Records from Biological Collections

Create Name Initials

Description

Convert or standardize a vector of containing people's names or their initials.

Usage

getInit(x, upper = TRUE, rm.spaces = TRUE, max.initials = 5)

Arguments

x	the character string or vector to be standardized
upper	logical. Should initials be capitalized? Default to TRUE.
rm.spaces	logical. Should spaces between initials be removed? Default to TRUE.
max.initials	numerical. Upper limit of number of letter for a single word to be considered as initials and not as a name. Default to 5.

Details

The function has some basic assumptions in order to get initials for the most type of cases.

For multiple names/abbreviations separated by a space and/or an abbreviation point, the function takes the first letter of each name/abbreviation as the initials.

For single names or one-string initials the output depends on the presence of abbreviation points, if names are provided in all caps and in the number of letters. If the number of capital letters exceeds the value in the argument max.initials, then it is taken as a name and not initials (see Examples).

The output is relatively stable regarding different name formats and notation standards, but it doe not work for all of them (see Examples).

Value

the character string with the initials of each name separated by points, without spaces. By default, initials are returned capitalized.

Author(s)

Renato A. F. de Lima

Examples

## Not run: 
  # Full names and both full and abbreviated names
  getInit("Alwyn")
  getInit("Alwyn Howard Gentry")
  getInit("Alwyn H. Gentry")
  getInit("A. Gentry")
  getInit("A. H. Gentry")
  getInit("A.H.Gentry")

  # Abbreviations
  getInit("A")
  getInit("A H G")
  getInit("A. H. G.")

  # Capitalized and lower-case names
  getInit("ALWYN HOWARD GENTRY")
  getInit("AHG")
  getInit("a.h. gentry")
  getInit("alwyn") # assumes as name
  getInit("ALWYN") # assumes as name

  # Other formats
  getInit("Auguste Saint-Hilaire")
  getInit("John MacDonald")
  getInit("John McDonald")
  getInit("John O'Brien")

  # Some problematic (unresolved) examples
  getInit("AL") # assumes as initials (n. letters < default `max.initials`)
  getInit("AL", max.initials = 2) # assumes as name (by changing the default)
  getInit("Carl F. P. von Martius") #takes name preposition as name
  getInit("AH gentry") # assumes initials as first name
  getInit("Gentry, A.") # ignores comma
  getInit("G., Alwyn") # ignores comma
  getInit("Ah. Gentry") # discard the lower-case initial
 
## End(Not run)

LimaRAF/plantR documentation built on Jan. 1, 2023, 10:18 a.m.