I notice that most apps collect names in a single column rather than LAST and FIRST separately. That makes sense. So what’s the most efficient way to separate them so names can be sorted alphabetically?
Seems like concantenate formulas would cause issues. Is there something more efficient?
If I understand you right, you can collect them separately then combine together using a template column for displaying purposes. In your settings, you can choose to sort by last name or first name.
In my app I collect names in separate fields. It forces the user to insert names properly instead of mixing ‘First Last’, or ‘Last, First’, etc. I have a template column that joins it into ‘Last, First’, so it’s always sorted by last name first. It’s all your preference, but that’s what I do.
If you wanted to collect it in a single field, then I think you would still have to split them in a google sheet to get separate columns to sort by. You can split in glide, but you can’t work with each split value individually.
That makes sense. So if I want to create an Inline List based on the template column, do I have to create a new sheet?
No, you can use the same sheet. Just add which ever column you want to display (template if you choose) and set the sorting on the list to use the template column.
I’m missing something. Doesn’t “Inline List” use the first 3 columns on the sheet? I don’t see a way to change that.
An inline list can use any column you want in the sheet. So long as it’s not an array with multiple values, such as a lookup column on a multiple relation, or an array column that you established in a google sheet. You can still access all individual columns from a sheet based array though.
I don’t see a setting to change which columns are used.
Click on the inline list on the left hand side of the screen, then you can adjust your setting on the right hand side of the screen.
I’m an idiot. I just found it. Thanks for your patience!
That works fine until you have to cater for Chinese names, where the “last” name goes first, and the “first” name goes last, and things can get awfully confusing. To avoid that confusion, I prefer to use “Given Name” and “Family Name” 
And Vietnamese as well haha.
Those asian countries always making things more complicated. 
Yeah that’s true. I used Thinh Dinh here but actually my full name is Dinh Canh Thinh.
So Thinh is your family name, and Dinh Canh are your given names, or…?
Dinh is my family name, Thinh is my given name, Canh is middle name 
I rest my case.
Somehow that exchange confused me more, but I think I got it. 
My middle name is Michael.
When I became a Singapore Permanent Resident back in 2005, I was issued with an identity card.
On that card my name was presented as “Murphy Darren Michael” (Chinese style).
This became an endless source of confusion (and annoyance). People would address me as “Mr Michael”, or “Murphy Darren”, or “Murphy Darren Michael”, but never just Darren (which is my preference).
A few years ago, my card came up for renewal and I took the opportunity to ask that my name be presented on my new card “correctly”. It took some convincing (at first they wanted to know why I had changed my name 
), but finally they agreed and I was issued with a shiny new card with my name presented “correctly” as “Darren Michael Murphy”.
The natural balance was finally restored, and all was well again
Rebel