>How does everyone else manage the firstname and lastname fields in a database?
>
>Do you create a third field called name which is updated by an update trigger?
>
>person.lastname = "Delay"
>person.firstname = "Evan"
>person.name = "Delay, Evan" (trigger fills in??)
>
>I find that I am constantly combining the first and last name together to present to the user or for indexes..etc..
>
>Or do you use a function or a class...?

When I need them in person.name order, I have a view with

select ..., person.lastname - (", "+person.firstname) as name, ...

Then I index the view as necessary. Note the good old minus operator.