* Splitting imported place names

[Gary_G]

I found a plugin that rearranges place name elements.
However; how does one split the comma-delimited place names imported from RM9 in FH7?
Could someone point me to something that documents how to do this?

[ColeValleyGirl]

Almost certainly, the author of that plugin will be along soon with chapter and verse. However, FH expects comma delimited places (because Gedcom does), so I'm not sure why you think you need to split them?

There's info on Places within FH here: Working with Places and Addresses

[tatewise]

Gary, I guess you are referring to my Rearrange Address and Place Parts plugin, but without an example of what you are trying to split from and to it is difficult to advise how to proceed. A screenshot might help.

BTW: It helps if you can state explicit names for whatever you are using to save us guessing.
i.e. commands, buttons, plugins, etc.

[Gary_G]

Helen;

Re: "Working with Places and Addresses"

If any element doesn’t exist for the location you’re dealing with, leave an empty space between commas. This means that when you use Tools > Work With Data to manage your Places or Addresses (or View > Record Lists > Places in ƒh version 6 and later), you have columns dedicated to a particular element.

The documentation seems to indicate that places would be displayed as one column for each element. I am seeing the "Place Record - Records Window" showing a single "Place Records" field with multiple comma-delimited elements in it. It's almost as if the FH7 import from RM9 didn't split them on the comma. Perhaps there is another screen I've missed???

Their display as a single column made me think they needed to be split so the elements could be reorganized.

[Gary_G]

My apologies. I found the Work with data > Places shows The place broken up into columns, while the Maps displays it as one column. So; the "Rearrange Address and Place Parts" v1.7 plugin should work. I must be doing something wrong. FH7 obviously has a steeper learning curve than I thought.

[tatewise]

Tools > Work with Data > Places and Records Window Places tab and the Map Window Places are simply different views of the same Place field comma-separated data. Fundamentally, Places (and Addresses) are simple text strings with embedded commas. What each part of text between the commas represents is entirely up to you.
Typically they represent Town, County, Country in UK but Town, County, State, Country in USA.
However, some users include address details too such as House-Number, Street, District, Town, Country, Country.
That is how they are typically displayed except in Tools > Work with Data > Places which displays them in column Parts determined by the comma separators.

The Rearrange Address and Place Parts plugin is only needed to move the comma-separated parts around.

[Gary_G]

Thank you, Mike.
I'm treading carefully, because all my current research is in France.
Their way of documenting a location is a bit of a challenge.

[tatewise]

Examples and explanations of your problem would help us understand.
However, I'm not familiar with Fench places, but somebody else might be.

[Gary_G]

Mike;
I think I can figure this out now. However; here's more detail on what I'm up against...

If one looks at how various geocoding databases specify a French location, they don't seem to agree upon the number of elements to use. RM9 consults one that uses, "Bernes-sur-Oise, Île-deFrance, France", but MacFamilyTree consults one that includes the department, "Bernes-sur-Oise, Département du Val-d'Oise, Île-deFrance, France". I prefer the latter, because the same commune name can occur more than once in a region, but not usually in a department. I've no idea what source FH7 consults, so I've no idea how many elements it includes. That is why I need to be careful about locations.

[tatewise]

If you ask what FH uses we will do our best to explain.
The Help > About Family Historian and https://www.family-historian.co.uk/geocoding identifies the geocoding services.

In addition, the Map Life Facts plugin uses Google Maps.

FH seems to prefer Bernes-sur-Oise, Département du Val-d'Oise, Île-deFrance, France whereas Google Maps does not care as long as Bernes-sur-Oise is mentioned.

These sorts of problems seem to come with the territory
It gets even more complex with historic place names that get moved from County to County from time to time

[Gary_G]

Thanks, Mike.

Sounds like I already use what FamilyHistorian prefers.
That makes me feel better going forward.
Sounds like new places are unlikely to cause an issue.