Why are the original Firstname and Lastname columns preserved if they're not changed?

[kenwest]

If I download a processed CSV file, the Firstname and Lastname columns match the original Firstname and original Lastname columns.

Why are the original Firstname and Lastname columns preserved if they're not changed?

Or if you anticipate cases where they will change, what are they and what happens in those cases?

Eg, if the original csv contains

Fred Smith [email protected]

and the database contains

1234 Bill Jones [email protected]
1357 Mark Wells [email protected]

and I match that row with contact 1357, then the processed CSV contains

1357 Fred Smith Fred Smith [email protected]

[artfulrobot]

Yes, I've thought about this as a processing option. Basically the only purpose of the additional columns is to allow for the unpacking of compound names in the first name column. i.e. if you feed it in a CSV with "Ms. Wilma Flintstone" in the first name column it will separate the title, first and last name out into the othe r columns. This was designed to help a client who had a lot of data with a single name field.

It seems there's these options for functionality:

1. As is. The new columns are only populated with the input data.

   or

2. When it is not matched, use the input data. When a contact is matched, populate the new columns from CiviCRM. Could lead to clobbering input data with blanks if data missing in CiviCRM.

   or

3. As (2) but when a contact is matched, populate the new columns from CiviCRM but only if the input data is missing from the input data. i.e. if you input "Wilma" but not "Flintstone" and you match it to "Flintstone, W" in CiviCRM, then it would add in "Flintstone" as the last name, but use the input "Wilma" for the first name.

   or

4. As (3) but the other way around; fill new columns with CiviCRM data of selected contact, only using input data if missing in CiviCRM. In the example given in (3) this would result in Wilma's name remaining as "Flinstone, W" in CiviCRM.

Which do you think would make the most sense to users? I think that's an important guide to making the right call here! For me, I'd add it as a processing option, but I think that's going to frighten users because it's not v. easy to explain.