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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM MODELING AND FORMALIZATION

Keywords DBMS table form query selection condition report

What is a DBMS Database management system (DBMS) - software to create, store and search databases necessary information. Creating a database Filling a database Editing a database Sorting data Searching for information in a database Outputting information from a database DBMS capabilities Setting up database protection A DBMS turns a huge amount of information stored in computer memory into a powerful help system.

DBMS interface DB logos

The table stores data Object for convenient work with data in tables Commands for user access to the DBMS Document created on the basis of tables Table Form Request Report DBMS objects DBMS objects

Database “Our class” LIST (CODE, LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, DATE OF BIRTH, GENDER, HEIGHT, ADDRESS, HOBBY, AVAILABILITY OF PC) The CODE field is the key of the database table. Field name Field type Code Numeric Last name Text Name Text Date of birth Date Gender Text Height Numeric Address Text Hobby Text Availability of PC Logical

Creating a database Describe the structure of the table Specify the path and file name Specify the names and types of fields Enter into the table Enter into the form Enter data Register the database Create a new database Create a database

Data entry table Data entry forms Data entry table and forms

Table “List” of the database “Our class” The table can be supplemented and edited. Data can be sorted according to the desired criteria.

Queries for retrieving data A query or reference is a table containing information of interest to the user, extracted from the database. Selection conditions are written in the form of logical expressions in which field names and their values ​​are related by relational operations. Sign Designation = equal not equal greater than = greater than or equal

Statement Logical expression Record number Meaning The student's height does not exceed 160 cm HEIGHT ' dancing ' 2 1 True False Truth False Statement Logical expression Record number Meaning Student was born in 1996 DATE ># 12/31/95 # 8 10 True False Statement Logical expression Record number Meaning The student has a personal computer PC AVAILABILITY =1 7 9

When comparing dates, one date is considered smaller than another if it is from an earlier time. Statement Meaning 11/01/95 03/31/98 11/29/95 09/05/99 Date selection conditions True True True False False False

Statement Logical expression Record number Meaning The student's height is more than 160 cm, and the student is fond of swimming HEIGHT > 160 AND PASSION = ' swimming ' 4 10 Complex selection conditions True False Statement Logical expression Record number Meaning The student's height is more than 160 cm or the student is fond of swimming HEIGHT > 160 OR PASSION = ` swimming ` 10 1 True False Statement Logical expression Entry number Meaning Olga's birthday is not 05/09/96 NAME = ` Olga ` AND DATE # 05/09/96 # 4 7 True False

The most important thing is a Database Management System (DBMS) - software for creating databases, storing and searching the necessary information in them is called Tables, forms, queries, reports - the main objects of a DBMS. Using queries to select data that satisfy given conditions(selection conditions), the user receives from the database only those records and their fields that he needs. In DBMS commands, selection conditions are written in the form of logical expressions.

Questions and tasks What is a DBMS? What DBMS is installed on the computers in your classroom? Where does the creation of a database begin? List the main objects of a DBMS. What functions do they perform? The characteristics of laptops available for sale in a computer salon are presented in tabular form: No. Name Hard drive (GB) RAM(MB) 1 Sony Vaio AW2X 500 4096 2 Lenovo S10e 250 3072 3 Asus F70SL 250 2048 4 Aser F525 160 2048 5 Samsung NC20 160 1024 6 Roverbook V212 120 1024 What line will the entry containing information about laptop Asus F70SL, after sorting by increasing values ​​of the NAME field? What line will be occupied by a record containing information about the Asus F70SL laptop, after sorting in descending order of field values? HARD DISK? What row will be occupied by a record containing information about the Asus F70SL laptop, after sorting first by descending values ​​of the RAM field, then by ascending values ​​of the HARD DISK field? What is the purpose of a fetch request? A fragment of the database with students' annual grades is presented in tabular form: Last name Gender Algebra Geometry Computer Science Physics Alekseev Zh 3 3 4 3 Voronin M 4 4 4 3 Ilyin M 4 3 3 4 Kostin M 5 4 5 4 Sizova Zh 5 5 5 4 Shkolina Zh 5 5 5 5 How many records in this fragment satisfy the following condition? ALGEBRA>3 AND COMPUTER SCIENCE>4 AND GENDER= ` M ` (ALGEBRA>4 OR COMPUTER SCIENCE>4) AND GENDER= ` F ` PHYSICS=3 OR ALGEBRA=3 OR GEOMETRY=3 OR COMPUTER SCIENCE=3 (PHYSICS=3 OR ALGEBRA= 3) AND (GEOMETRY=3 OR COMPUTER SCIENCE=3) A fragment of the database with the results of the computer science Olympiad is presented in tabular form: Last name Gender Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Sum Zharikov M 15 20 25 60 Kostin M 10 10 10 30 Kuznetsov M 20 25 30 75 Mikhailova Zh 25 20 10 55 Sizova Zh 30 30 30 90 Starovoitova Zh 20 25 25 70 Shkolina Zh 30 25 25 80 How many records in this fragment satisfy the following condition? GENDER= ‘ M ’ AND AMOUNT>55 (TASK1

What will the list (last name, first name) of students look like after sorting in ascending order the values ​​of the BIRTH DATE field in the “Our class” database?

Indicate all entries in the “Our class” database for which the simple logical expression Height #31.12.95# AVAILABILITY OF PC=1 will be true

Indicate all records of the “Our class” database for which the complex logical expression GROWTH >160 AND PASSION= ` swimming ` GROWTH >160 OR PASSION= ` swimming ` NAME= ` Olga ` AND DATE #09.05.96# will be true

Basic summary Table Database management system (DBMS) - software for creating databases, storing and searching the necessary information in them. Form Request Report DBMS Objects

§ 1.6. Database Management System

Questions and tasks for § 1.6. Database Management System

1. Read the presentation materials for the paragraph contained in the electronic appendix to the textbook. Use these materials when preparing answers to questions and completing assignments.

2. What is a DBMS?

3. What DBMS is installed on the computers in your classroom?

4. Where does the creation of a database begin?

5. List the main objects of the DBMS. What functions do they perform?

6. Below in tabular form are the characteristics of laptops available for sale in a computer salon:

a) What row will be occupied by the record containing information about the Asus F70SL laptop after sorting the data in ascending order of the values ​​of the NAME field?
b) What line will the record containing information about the Asus F70SL laptop occupy after sorting the data in descending order of the HARD DISK field values?
c) Which line will be occupied by a record containing information about the Asus F70SL laptop, after sorting the data first by descending values ​​of the RAM field, then by ascending values ​​of the HARD DISK field?

7. What will the list (last name, first name) of students look like after sorting the data in ascending order of the values ​​of the BIRTH DATE field in the “Our class” database (Fig. 1.18)?

8. Indicate all entries in the “Our Class” database (Fig. 1.18), for which simple logical expressions 1-6 will be true (Table 1.6).

9. Indicate all entries in the “Our Class” database (Fig. 1.18), for which complex logical expressions 1-3 will be true (Table 1.7).

10. What is the purpose of a sample request?

11. Below in tabular form is a fragment of the database with students’ annual grades:

a) ALGEBRA>3 AND COMPUTER SCIENCE>4 AND Gender="M"
b) (ALGEBRA>4 OR COMPUTER SCIENCE>4) AND GENDER="F"
c) PHYSICS=3 OR ALGEBRA=3 OR GEOMETRY=3 OR COMPUTER SCIENCE=3
d) (PHYSICS=3 OR ALGEBRA=3) AND (GEOMETRY=3 OR COMPUTER SCIENCE=3)

12. Below, in tabular form, is a fragment of the database with the results of the Informatics Olympiad:

How many records in this fragment satisfy the following condition?

a) GENDER="M" AND AMOUNT>55
b) (Task<ЗАДАЧА2) И (ЗАДАЧА2<ЗАДАЧА3)
c) TASK 1=30 OR TASK2=30 OR TASK3=30
d) TASK 1=30 AND TASK2=30 AND TASK3=30

Using the DBMS, the user can:

• create a database structure;
• fill the database with information;
• edit (correct, supplement) the structure and content of the database;
• perform sorting (ordering) of information;
• search for information in the database;
• display the necessary information on the monitor screen, in a file and on paper;
• install database security.

It is the presence of a DBMS that turns the huge amount of information stored in computer memory into a powerful reference system that can quickly search and select the information we need.

2.6.2. DBMS interface

There are DBMSs that are used to create large industrial information systems. Working with these systems requires special knowledge, including knowledge of specialized programming languages.

To maintain personal databases, as well as databases of small organizations, simpler DBMSs are used, which ordinary users can work with. The most common DBMS of this type are Microsoft Access and OpenOffice.org Base. When you launch any of them, a window is displayed on the screen with a title bar, a menu bar, toolbars, a work area and a status bar (Fig. 2.12).

Rice. 2.12.
OpenOffice.org Base environment

Tables- This is the main type of objects. You are already familiar with them. Tables store data. A relational database can consist of many interrelated tables.

Forms- these are auxiliary objects. They are created in order to make the user's experience more convenient when entering, viewing and editing data in tables.

Requests- these are commands and results of a user’s request to the DBMS to search for data, sort, add, delete and update records.

Reports- these are documents generated on the basis of tables and queries and intended for printing.

2.6.3. Creating a Database

As an example, consider the process of creating the “Our Class” database. It will consist of one table with the following structure:

LIST (CODE, LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, DATE OF BIRTH, GENDER, HEIGHT, ADDRESS, HOBBY, AVAILABILITY OF A PC).

The CODE and GROWTH fields will be numeric; the BIRTH DATE field will be of date type; the PC AVAILABILITY field will be Boolean; all other fields will be of text type. The CODE field can be considered the key of the database table.

Creating a database begins with opening the file in which it will be stored. To do this, after launching the OpenOffice.org Base program, follow the instructions of the Database Wizard:

1. create a new database;
2. register the database (specify the path and file name).

Data can be entered directly into the table (Fig. 2.13), or you can create a special template for this - a form (Fig. 2.14).

Rice. 2.13.
Data entry table

Rice. 2.14.
Data entry forms

After performing all the above actions, the following result will be obtained (Fig. 2.15):

Rice. 2.15.
Table “List” of the “Our Class” database

The created and saved database can later be opened to add new records, correct and delete existing ones, change the contents of individual fields and the structure of the entire table.

Data from tables can be ordered according to some criteria. For example, the names of students in the class register are written in alphabetical order; TV shows in the program - in accordance with the time of their broadcast; lessons in the schedule are in ascending order of their serial numbers.

The ordering of data in ascending or descending order of the values ​​of a certain characteristic is called sorting. To perform sorting, indicate the name of the field (field names) by which the sorting will be performed, and its order (ascending or descending field values).

2.6.4. Retrieval queries

Once the database is created, it can be used as a reference system.

In DBMS commands, selection conditions are written in the form of logical expressions - formalized statements formulated in natural language (Table 2.6).

Table 2.6

In Boolean expressions, database field names are associated with specific values ​​of these fields using relational operations:

not equal;

< меньше;

<= меньше или равно (не больше);

>= greater than or equal to (not less than).

In mathematics lessons, you apply these operations by creating and solving numerical equalities, inequalities and their systems.

Relational operations also apply to text fields. Their comparison is based on the lexicographic principle: the smaller of two words is the word whose first letter comes earlier in the alphabet; If the first few letters of two words are the same, then the comparison is made using the first letter that differs.

The value of a text type field and some text value are equal if they contain the same number of characters and all of their characters in positions with the same numbers are the same.

When comparing text values, keep in mind that a space is also a character, although it is “smaller” than any letter.

Date comparisons are constructed differently - one date is considered smaller than another if it belongs to an earlier time. For example, the following relations will be true:

Selection conditions can be specified not only by simple, but also by complex logical expressions containing logical operations. You were introduced to the basic logical operations AND, OR, NOT in Chapter 1.

Table 2.7

Using queries, the user can quickly search the database and display the information he is interested in on the computer screen. But to solve most practical problems, the information found must be presented in a certain form and prepared for printing. This stage of work is called report preparation.

The most important

Software for creating databases, storing and searching the necessary information in them is called a database management system (DBMS).

The main objects of a DBMS are tables, forms, queries, and reports.

Using queries to select data that satisfy specified conditions (selection conditions), the user receives from the database only those records and their fields that he needs. In DBMS commands, selection conditions are written in the form of logical expressions.

Questions and tasks

The scope of the article concerns the differences in names of people around the world, and how this affects the design of input forms, databases, computer science ontologies, etc. in the context of the World Wide Web.

Interested audience: HTML content authors, server application script developers (PHP, JSP, etc.), web project managers and any other people in one way or another associated with the design of data entry forms, database design and ontologies that affect personal names of people.

It is worth remembering the differences in the formation and traditions of using people's names in other countries. Often, the creators of websites or programs of one culture do not take into account the national characteristics of the user of another, which makes the latter feel unusual and poses additional barriers to using the product.

This article does not cover absolutely all cases. This is due both to the fact that there are too many different name cultures, all of which cannot be described and taken into account at once, and to the frequent acceptability of non-ideal solutions that correspond only to the cultures of the majority of users, which significantly saves labor resources. Here we will only try to focus on the main examples showing solutions in the design of input forms and the construction of databases. Some points may sometimes need to be taken into account when constructing ontologies, although specific examples will not be presented here.

Cases

There are two main cases that need to be considered.

• You design the form in a single language (let's say English) that will be used by people from all over the world.
• You design a form in one language, but over time the element will be adapted to the different cultural backgrounds of the end user's language domain.

In real life, you probably won't be able to localize for every culture, so even if you rely on the second option, some people will have to use a form that wasn't designed for their culture.

Descriptions of differences

Let's look at examples of how people's names can vary around the world.

First and last name

In the naming "Björk Guðmundsdóttir" the actual name is Björk. The second word is a patronymic, made up of the father's name (sometimes the mother's, but matronyms are rare) and ending with -son (Islamic son) for men and -dóttir (Islamic daughter) for women. As a rule, Icelanders do not have a surname, so there is no question of using them.

Regardless of the degree of respect addressed to the object of the address, Icelanders call him only by his first name or by his first name and patronymic. Of course, calling a person “Mrs. Gvüdmündsdouttir” would be incorrect.

Spouses do not change anything in their name; it is possible to borrow a surname in those rare cases, if there is one.

Alphabetical sorting is done by first name, not patronymic. In order to clarify repeated entries, some techniques are used, for example, telephone books indicate the professions of subscribers.

The first and patronymic pattern is also used in southern India, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Malay name "Isa bin Osman" can be broken down into a first and middle name. The word "bin" means "son of (someone)", for women it is used "binti". In order to address this person, “Mr. Isa”, “Mr. Isa” will do.

Differences in the arrangement of components

In the Chinese given name 毛泽东 ("Mao Zedong"), the surname is "Mao", which is the first name when read from left to right. The personal name is "Dun". The middle syllable “Tse” is the name of a generation, and is the same for all its brothers and sisters: 毛泽民 (Mao Zemin), 毛泽覃 (Mao Zetan), 毛泽紅 (Mao Zehong)

The Chinese naming system is the basis for all traditional ways of naming people in East Asia.

Among people who are not close to him, Mao may be addressed as 毛泽东先生 (“Mao Zedong Xiansheng”) or 毛先生 (“Mao Xiansheng”), where “Xiansheng” is a kind of equivalent to “Mr.” Although not everyone has a generation name at the moment, especially in mainland China, those who do will consider it appropriate to use it along with their personal name. Therefore, a person named 毛泽东 cannot be addressed simply as 东, but should be addressed as 泽东.

In Japan, Korea and Hungary, the surname is also placed before the personal name or given names.

Please note that the names in the hieroglyph entries are not separated by spaces. There are many different transcription systems for various Asian languages, named after the surnames of their creators. In this case, the transcription of an already transcribed word from one language to another, bypassing the original form, will, of course, lead to errors (compare the correct “Takeshi” and the heretical “Takeshi”).

The Chinese, when in contact with representatives of Western civilization, can add an additional personal name, which will be more familiar to their new friends. For example, Yao Ming (last name - Yao, personal name - Ming) may be called to foreigners as Fred Yao Ming or Fred Ming Yao.

Multiple surnames

Spaniards usually have two surnames. For example, the daughter of Antonio Campos Rodríguez and María Martínez Marqués is named María Campos Martínez. You should address your daughter as Señorita Campos, not Señorita Martínez.

At birth, a Portuguese child may receive one or two given names and up to four surnames. Similarly, children receive a surname from both parents. Brazilians also have up to four surnames inherited from ancestors, such as José Eduardo Santos Tavares Melo Silva.

The Spaniards put the father's surname before the mother's surname, the Portuguese and Brazilians do the opposite, but the order may change. Also, short words may appear between names, such as de or e between words: Carreño de Quiñones, Tavares e Silva.

Changing forms of words

Icelandic patronymics vary depending on the gender of the bearer. However, there are also more dramatic changes. Russians and the peoples of the countries of the former USSR (Kazakhstan, Tatarstan, Georgia, etc.) who have adopted the Russian name tradition along with the Russian language use the patronymic, used between the surname and the name. Patronymic endings vary depending on the gender of the bearer. Compare: Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin and Naina Iosifovna Yeltsina - there is no ending at the end of the husband’s name, while the wife has an “-a” added. Russian names are declined, while there are indeclinable, permanent surnames. A distinctive feature of Russian naming is the rarity of matronyms.

Middle name

The middle or middle name is a tradition in English-speaking countries. Sometimes the second is understood by other terms, such as double names. In European and Western cultures, one to three additional names are commonly used. The second name is an additional personal name and is not identical to the Russian patronymic, although it can be given in honor of a relative.

Americans often write their own name with a middle initial, such as John Q. Public. Sometimes the US form is suggested as a general name tradition, even in the United Kingdom, where people may have more than one middle name. A Briton will immediately notice such American manners. Koreans, who typically have 3 names that are not written as initials, will be surprised by the "American" input form. Please also note that many people who use initials in their name may prefer to place them at the beginning of the name.

Name inheritance

Members of the same family do not always have the same last name. In modern Western civilization, there is a growing number of wives who want to keep their own surnames after marriage, but in China this practice is normal. In some countries, wives have the choice whether or not to take their husband's name. If a Malayan Zaiton marries an Isa, she may remain Mrs. Zaiton, or take the double surname "Zaiton Isa", which suggests being addressed as "Ms. Isa".

Hispanic surnames also differ. In 1996, Manuel A. Pérez Quiñones described his family's surnames or apellidos: he himself became Pérez Quiñones because his father's apellido was Pérez Rodríguez and his mother's apellido was Quiñones Alamo. Later he dated a girl from Padilla Falto. After the wedding, her appelidos became Padilla de Pérez, and their children have appelidos Pérez Padilla. The point is that only siblings share the same appellido.

(Manuel's name has been slightly changed: it is actually Pérez-Quiñones appellido instead of the space version, which was introduced to make the naming mechanism clearer.)

Also, you can't just rely on taking the surname from husband to wife; sometimes grooms take the brides' surnames. In this case, it would be better to say “maiden name” or “former name” “nee (hereinafter maiden name)”.

Mixing styles

Many cultures mix naming traditions shared by two or more and add their own inventions.

For example, "Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan" is a south Indian Kerala name, usually written as "V. S. Achuthanandan” and is a “last name-patronymic-first name” construction.

In many parts of the world, the various components of a person's name are derived from the names of localities, genealogical characteristics, caste, religious status, etc. Here are some examples:

The Indian name "Kogaddu ​​Birappa Thimappa Nair" should be considered as a combination of "village name - father's name - personal name - surname".

The Rajasthani name "Aditya Pratap Singh Chauhan" consists of personal name, father's name, surname and caste name.

In another region of India, the name "Madurai Mani Iyer" must be interpreted as a combination of "city name - personal name - caste name".

The Arabic "Abu Karim Muhammad al-Jamil ibn Nidal ibn Abdulaziz al-Filistini" translates as "Father of Karim, Muhammad (personal name), the Handsome, Son of Nidal, Son of Abdulaziz, Palestinian", with Karim being the first son of Muhammad. For more information on this tradition of rich and long names, see.

The people of Thailand have a nickname that they use to call each other in informal situations. The nickname initially has nothing to do with the real name. Since the nickname consists of one or two syllables and is easier to pronounce, Thais introduce themselves to foreigners as such. For example, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's nickname is Mau (แม้ว). Often nicknames for family and friends differ.

In Vietnam, the name Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (Nguyen Tan Dung) has the meaning of "surname - middle name - personal name". Although this system is similar to the Chinese one, there is a slight difference: even in official situations, the Prime Minister of Vietnam must be addressed as “Mr. Dung” rather than “Mr. Nguyen,” that is, by his first name.

Ambiguity of spelling

The ideographic writing in Japanese names creates problems: there is more than one way to read a name out loud. This creates difficulties both for people and for alphabetical sorting systems, since the latter is carried out by pronunciation. For example, the surname 東海林賢蔵 (the first three ideograms on the left) can be read as either "Tokairin" or "Soji".

Moreover, the pronunciation of different kanji may be the same, so Romanization and Cyrillization inevitably lead to a loss of meaning: all of the surnames 庄司, 庄子, 東海林 and 小路 are read as “Soji”.

Some Japanese names use outdated and obsolete ideograms that may be difficult to read.

Because of the issues discussed, the Japanese prefer to prefix their own name in normal spelling with a version of the entry in the non-ideographic kana syllabary.

Implications for input form design

As mentioned above, a possible way to solve problems is localization for each specific cultural and linguistic environment. In theory, this should allow the interface to be tailored to each specific target audience. Unfortunately, this approach has several disadvantages:

• If it is necessary to centralize information from several types of input in a single database, difficulties will arise in synthesizing a storage scheme.
• Additionally, a situation may arise where focusing on determining the required naming scheme based on the user's location will not work: there may be foreigners adapting to a foreign cultural environment, as well as foreign elements. For example, Singaporeans have Chinese, Malay and South Indian ancestry. It is also likely that there will be more than one use of names. Therefore, your interface must remain flexible.

To break or not to break?

When designing an input form or database where users will enter personal data, you should immediately ask yourself whether it is necessary to separate the personal first and last names. It all depends on the tasks at hand, but, as is obvious, the simplest would be to simply leave the full name field.

Please note that some cultures may have longer names than yours, so the input field should be long enough for the user to see the entire text as they type. Also, don't limit name fields in databases. In particular, a four-character Japanese name will not fit into four bytes when encoded in UTF-8; it will need 12.

Ways to divide names into parts

If you still prefer to keep the parts of the name separate, try to avoid the names “Personal name” and “Last name” in non-localized input forms, since some people will find it more convenient to write the last name followed by personal names.

For some cultures this will not be very acceptable (for example, for Icelanders, who do not have a surname as such), but in general this is the most suitable solution.

In case you want to define parts of a name for alphabetical sorting, contacts, etc. Consider adding additional fields to the existing full name field in which the user can specify parts of the name that are needed for special purposes.

Sometimes dividing a name into parts is done with the aim of using one of them in address: “I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave.” This can be used both in the interface and in email notifications. Of course, calling someone by name, for example, will be welcomed in some contexts, but a person of another national culture may perceive it negatively and vice versa. Attitudes towards calling people by name can vary within one nation. In this case, it would be better to ask the user what to call it at the very beginning.

This additional meaning will also be useful in determining Thai nicknames.

Since Japanese names are pronounced differently, sorting Japanese names will require an additional field where they can enter the pronunciation of their name. The information from this field will be used to sort Japanese names.

If you break up name fields, make sure each input field has a clear label. Do not rely on the fact that the user will definitely enter the last name after the personal name.

Be careful about the assumptions of algorithms that automatically split a full name into parts. For example, optimizing v-card or h-card names may not work well with Chinese names. It is necessary to inform the user as accurately as possible how to enter their data.

There are names that are one character long. People with short names like these may have problems with applications rejecting the input as a name with initials. If you need to monitor the input of initials, add a message to users rather than filtering the input.

Don't make entering a last name mandatory: people in South India, Malaysia, Indonesia and many other countries only have a personal name. Users will have to enter some garbage like "Mr.", "." into the fields or, much worse, not use your product at all.

Other notes

Don't forget to allow the user to use punctuation marks in names: hyphens, apostrophes, etc. The user may need to enter text with spaces, such as adding prefixes and suffixes: “de” in the French, “von” in the Germans, “Ml.” (“Junior”) among the Americans; also, sequences of letters separated by a space can be valid names: “Rose Mary”.

Members of the same family may have different surnames. Not only women can change their surnames after marriage, so it is better to choose the name of the field for entering the surname at birth without focusing on gender: “Previous name” and not “Maiden name”.

If you are designing input forms that will be localized to each specific cultural environment, be aware that the broken-down name will likely need to be stored in a centralized database, which will require all the intricate pieces to be represented in a form that can be stored and retrieved.

Symbol support

Many users do not use the Latin alphabet or use sets with many additional characters. This seems obvious, but it still has several implications for designers that are often overlooked.

If you are designing a form in English, you need to decide whether you expect the user to enter the name in national characters (for example, 小林康宏), only in Latin characters (Yasuhiro Kobayashi), or in both forms.

Remember that even English names can contain letters that are not found in ASCII (for example, Zoë).

On the other hand, there are situations (you need to set a login, the system only supports ASCII) in which it will be impossible to resolve national characters.

What users enter in the input form most often depends on the language of the page. If the page is translated into their native language, it is most possible to get the name written in something other than Latin.

In terms of letters, ASCII encoding means a set of basic letters of the English alphabet, that is, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ and the same composition of lowercase letters.

If you only need the Latin alphabet, inform the user about this in the input form interface. Don't forget to instruct the translators as well.

The choice of the form of data entry and storage depends on the purposes of collecting information and its use.

• Are you going to use the person's name as an identifier in the system? In this case, it makes no difference whether it is ASCII or the national script.
• Do you want to address the user by name on the welcome page or in correspondence? In the case of creating a page translated into their native language, it would be more logical to use the name in their national spelling.
• Is it important for people in your organization to be able to understand records and read their names? Then request a Latin transcription.
• Will their name be indexed by search engines? Or do you want to address users in your newsletters by name, but carry out internal operations in English? Then in the input form, request both the national spelling and the transcription in separate fields.

Note that Japanese may need a field to transcribe the name in Japanese syllabary, which would require adding a third field in the example above.

When using characters outside of the ASCII set, be aware of the page, application, and database encoding.

Note

Sorting note

People's names are not always sorted by last name. For example, Thais and Icelanders use personal name sorting.

Sorting methods also differ in Spain. A María-Jose Carreño Quiñones from one place will look for herself as a Carreño Quiñones, and her full namesake, living in another place where a different sorting system is adopted, will start out as Quiñones.

The small words “von”, “de”, “van” add complexity. Sometimes prefixes are taken into account, sometimes not.

Formalism

The level of formality varies from country to country and this must be taken into account when approaching the user. In Western culture, it is customary to address someone by their personal name, but in the United Kingdom, calling them by their personal name at the first meeting will show the interlocutor that you have already met somewhere.

On the other hand, using the title and personal name (“Mr. Richard”) or just the surname (“Ishida!”) is acceptable in some parts of the world, but not in all (eg Britain).

In Germany, titles and titles are important, so it is better to address yourself not as “Herr Schmidt”, but as “Herr Professor Doktor Schmidt”.

In cultures like Japan, there are nominal suffixes that express honor, position, or rank. It is better to address someone as "Tanaka-san" or "Tanaka-sama" (depending on the degree of respect). A department head named Tanaka expects you to call Tanaka-bucho (lit. "department head Tanaka"). Although it is possible to add -san to personal names, this would look strange in a production environment.

Additional information

The information above provides just a snapshot of the challenges a developer may encounter. In reality, even in the sphere of one culture, the situation may turn out to be even more confusing and complicated. The English-language Wikipedia provides many detailed articles about the formation of people's names in various parts of the world. It is recommended that you read and understand these articles.