Swap Name (Doe, John → John Doe)

PopClip Extensions
1

This extension idea I received by email is to swap around a person’s name, e.g. if it currently says “John Smith” it would flip it to “Smith, John” or vice versa.

How it might work for more complex names

  • John Herbert Walker Smith <=> Smith, John Herbert Walker
  • John H. W. Smith, <=> Smith, John H. W.
  • J. Herbert Smith <=> Smith, J. Herbert

Basically it should assume the surname is one word an everything else is the forenames.

2

A quick snippet for this, it goes from Doe, Jon to John Doe but not the other way round.

#popclip
name: Swap Name
icon: symbol:arrow.triangle.swap
after: paste-result
regex: '\w+, .+'
javascript: |
  const match = popclip.input.text.match(/([\w\-]+), (.+)/)
  if (match) return match[2] + ' ' + match[1]; else return null

(The above block is an extension snippet - select it to install the extension with PopClip)

Test inputs:
Bush, George
Bush, George Herbert Walker
Bush, George H. W.
Smith-Smythe-Smith, Tarquin

3

Thanks for this! I would more often need the reverse of this (John Do to Doe, John), but will keep this one in mind. Is there a simple “transpose 2 words” (or 2 characters) operation?

That would go partway but would also be useful to place punctuation inside double or single quotation marks for example when they appear on the outside.

4

And what about all the French, German and Dutch names with the prefixes: de, von, von der, van, van de, vanden…?

5

transpose 2 words:

// #popclip
// name: Transpose words
// icon: iconify:ri:swap-box-line
// language: javascript
// regex: ^\w+\s\w+$
// after: paste-result
const words = popclip.input.text.split(" ");
return words[1] + " " + words[0];

transpose 2 characters:

// #popclip
// name: Transpose chars
// icon: iconify:ri:swap-box-fill
// language: javascript
// regex: ^\w\w$
// after: paste-result
return popclip.input.text[1] + popclip.input.text[0];

(The above block is an extension snippet — select it then click “Install Extension” in PopClip.)

6

The extension was installed and is active (i.e. is checked) but does not appear in the application bar (popup).

7

These only appear when the selected text is in the required format.

For example, transpose chars only appears if you select exactly two characters.