如何根据名字和姓氏生成唯一的3或4个字母的字母字符串

Question

I need to loop through every one in the DB and give them a unique 3/4 letter stock symbol like code.

I've got roughly 600 names (of people) and want to generate stock symbol like unique codes for them all, but based roughly on the names (like stock symbols).

For example: Dale Cooper could be DCO/DAC/DC, but Darren Cooper should generate a different code as all 600 should be unique.

first_name and last_name are in different columns.

Advice much appreciated.

Answer 1

Its possible with 4 letters, to keep it simple:

First letter:  first letter of firstname
Second letter: letter of the alphabet (starting with `A` keeping count)
Third letter:  first letter of lastname
Fourth letter: letter of the alphabet (starting with `A` keeping count)

That way you have 1 * 26 * 1 * 26 = 676 possibilities per name, either Dale Cooper or Darren Cooper would be 2 of that 676, ie:

Dale Cooper    DACA
Darren Cooper  DACB
Douglas Cooper DACC

When the fourth letter reaches Z , the second letter gets B :

Dave Cooper    DACZ
Doctor Cooper  DBCA

Etc.

EDIT

To keep the names more visual in the lettercode you could also use:

First letter:  first letter of firstname
Second letter: first letter of lastname
Third letter:  letter of the alphabet (starting with `A` keeping count)
Fourth letter: letter of the alphabet (starting with `A` keeping count)

Answer 2

Sticking just with mysql:

UPDATE people
SET code = CONCAT(
    SUBSTRING(first_name, 1, 1),
    SUBSTRING(last_name, 1, 1),
    SUBSTRING( MD5( CONCAT(first_name, last_name) ), 1, 2)
)

You get:

• first letter of the first name;
• first letter of the last name;
• first 2 letters of the has of first name + last name;

You shouldn't have any collisions for such a small set of people.