Answers.Body: <p>You will need to implement api and/or hook to update via cron job and/or when contact is updated via custom extension</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2022-09-21T13:02:15.670Z
Answers.Text: thx Pradeep !
  So it's not so easy but I'll explore this good idea
Answers.UserDisplayName: stackexchange user
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2022-09-21T08:09:52.423Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2022-09-21T08:09:52.423Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Pradeep Nayak
Body: <p>For each contacts of a given sub type (subtype = child) we need to concatenate to set the external identifier as the concatenation of lastname &amp; first name.
  We are doing this by exporting to excel, concatenate in excel and then import. It works but is time consuming and cannot be scheduled to run every 24 hours for example.</p>
  <p>Is there a way to</p>
  <ol>
  <li>set external identifier = concatenate(Last name, First name)</li>
  <li>run this periodically in some way, or even better : each time firt or last name is modified ?</li>
  </ol>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-09-22T01:49:15.690Z
Comments.Text: why do you need this? is it possible you could just do this using tokens when you need it, rather than having it saved in the db itself?
Comments.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-09-22T01:49:41.680Z
Comments.Text: or eg use 'postal greeting' field for it again using tokens
Comments.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-09-22T17:42:36.890Z
Comments.Text: Very good question @petednz-fuzion. The root cause for this need is an issue that I wanted to ask about since  a long time, I've just published 
  [this question](https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/questions/42678/create-relationships-using-profiles-or-forms)
  
  Would love to have your experienced opinion about it :)
Comments.UserDisplayName: stackexchange user
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-09-23T02:14:14.467Z
Comments.Text: i see someone else has already pointed to Caldera
Comments.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Tags: <contacts>
Title: concatenate two fields and copy to another one
ThreadText: # concatenate two fields and copy to another one
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2022-09-21)
  
  For each contacts of a given sub type (subtype = child) we need to concatenate to set the external identifier as the concatenation of lastname & first name.
  We are doing this by exporting to excel, concatenate in excel and then import. It works but is time consuming and cannot be scheduled to run every 24 hours for example.
  
  Is there a way to
  
  1. set external identifier = concatenate(Last name, First name)
  2. run this periodically in some way, or even better : each time firt or last name is modified ?
  
  **Tags:** contacts
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: why do you need this? is it possible you could just do this using tokens when you need it, rather than having it saved in the db itself?  
  > **username_1**: or eg use 'postal greeting' field for it again using tokens  
  > **username_0**: Very good question @petednz-fuzion. The root cause for this need is an issue that I wanted to ask about since  a long time, I've just published  [this question](https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/questions/42678/create-relationships-using-profiles-or-forms)  Would love to have your experienced opinion about it :)  
  > **username_1**: i see someone else has already pointed to Caldera  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2022-09-21. Score: 0
  
  You will need to implement api and/or hook to update via cron job and/or when contact is updated via custom extension
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: thx Pradeep ! So it's not so easy but I'll explore this good idea  
  
  ---
  
  