AddressBookNameOrder

I'm trying to write an app that is localized for both Japanese and English (for now), and I need to construct full names for people in the AddressBook.

The problem is that in Japanese and who knows what else, last names go before first names in a full name.

Okay, so panther provides information as to ordering in the ABPersonFlags property of an ABPerson, but I can't figure out how to interpret the info.

---

The ABPersonFlags property is used to access the following settings:

• kABDefaultNameOrdering - Default name ordering (whether a person's first name or last name is displayed first) the Address Book application.
• kABFirstNameFirst - First name is displayed first in Address Book.
• kABLastNameFirst - Last name is displayed first in Address Book.
• kABNameOrderingMask - Used in conjunction with kABDefaultNameOrdering, kABFirstNameFirst, and kABLastNameFirst to determine name order

---

Figured it out. For anyone who else who wonders, this code will compute the name order for a person.

ABAddressBook *addressBook = [ABAddressBook sharedAddressBook];
ABPerson *person = [[addressBook people] objectAtIndex:0];
BOOL lastNameGoesFirst;

int nameOrderFlags = [[person valueForProperty:kABPersonFlags] intValue] & kABNameOrderingMask;

if (nameOrderFlags == kABDefaultNameOrdering)
{
    nameOrderFlags = [addressBook defaultNameOrdering];
}
            
if (nameOrderFlags == kABLastNameFirst)
{
    lastNameGoesFirst = YES;
}
else
{
    lastNameGoesFirst = NO;
}

---

Apparently this is what you need to do in order to display a ABPerson object. Dunno why this isn't in the API.

@interface ABPerson (MyABPersonAddition)
- (NSString *)displayName_;
@end

@implementation ABPerson (MyABPersonAddition)
- (NSString *)displayName_
{
	int personFlags = [[self valueForProperty:kABPersonFlags] intValue];
	int showAs = (personFlags & kABShowAsMask);
	if (showAs == kABShowAsPerson)
	{
		NSString *title = [self valueForProperty:kABTitleProperty];
		NSString *lastName = [self valueForProperty:kABLastNameProperty];
		NSString *firstName = [self valueForProperty:kABFirstNameProperty];
		NSString *middleName = [self valueForProperty:kABMiddleNameProperty];
		NSString *suffix = [self valueForProperty:kABSuffixProperty];
		
		int nameOrdering = (personFlags & kABNameOrderingMask);
		if (nameOrdering == kABDefaultNameOrdering)
			nameOrdering = [[ABAddressBook sharedAddressBook] defaultNameOrdering];
		
		NSMutableString *outDisplayName = [NSMutableString string];
		if (title)
			[outDisplayName appendFormat:@"%@ ", title];
		if ((nameOrdering == kABLastNameFirst) && lastName)
			[outDisplayName appendFormat:@"%@ ", lastName];
		if (firstName)
			[outDisplayName appendFormat:@"%@ ", firstName];
		if (middleName)
			[outDisplayName appendFormat:@"%@ ", middleName];
		if ((nameOrdering != kABLastNameFirst) && lastName)
			[outDisplayName appendFormat:@"%@ ", lastName];
		if (suffix)
			[outDisplayName appendFormat:@"%@ ", suffix];
		// delete trailing space
		[outDisplayName deleteCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange([outDisplayName length]-1, 1)];
		return outDisplayName;
	}
	else
	{
		return [self valueForProperty:kABOrganizationProperty];
	}
}
@end