regexperl

Regex to verify properly formatted person's name ending with Sr or Jr

I am trying to create a Perl regular expression that will match a person's name. When the name ends with Sr or Jr it is formatted properly with a leading comma and space, and ending with a period.

For example:

Should match:
John Smith
John Smith, Sr.
John Smith, Jr.

Should not match:
John Smith Sr
John Smith, Sr
John Smith, SR.
John Smith Sr.
John Smith, John Smith Sr.
John Smith-

Must also be properly capitalized, i.e. Sr or Jr not sr, SR, sR, jr, JR, or jR. Name should not end with any punctuation, except for a period when Sr or Jr is used.

I tried

^(?!.(Jr|Sr)(?<!,\sJr.)(?<!,\sSr.)$).$

But the above Regex allows for several names that are not acceptable, i.e. John Smith, John Smith Sr.

I then found:

^([A-Za-z]+['-]?[A-Za-z]\s)([A-Za-z]+['-]?[A-Za-z]*)(,\s(Jr|Sr).)?$

but it allowed name to end in a hyphen, John Smith-, which should not be acceptable.

Solution

  • Match everything up to the last word char that isn't "Sr" or "Jr", then optionally allow ", Sr." or ", Jr." before end:

    .*\w(?<![SJ]r)(, [SJ]r\.)?$

    See live demo.

    Although not "bulletproof", it works for all your test cases and should be good enough judging by your examples.