123   John Smith    80
222   chris brown   50
325   christine     60

char iobuf[] = "222   chris brown   50";
char tbuf[40] = {0};
char* ptr;
// find the location of the first character in the name
//
// find the first space
ptr = iobuf;
while(*ptr && !isspace(*ptr) )
   ptr++;
// now find the first non-space
while(*ptr && isspace(*ptr))
   ptr++;
// ok, we're at the first letter of the name
// so copy remainder to new buffer
strcpy(tbuf,ptr);
// now locate end of string
ptr = tbuf + strlen(tbuf) - 1;
 
// back up to first space
while(!isspace(*ptr) )
   ptr--;
// back up to first non-space
while(isspace(*ptr) )
   ptr--;
// we're now at the end of the name.  So truncate the string
*(ptr+1) = 0;
 
// print the name
printf("%s\n", tbuf);

char iobuf[] = "222   chris brown   50";
char* ptr;
// find beginning of name
while( !isalpha(*ptr))
   ptr++;
memmove(iobuf,ptr,strlen(ptr)+1);
// find end of name
ptr = iobuf + strlen(iobuf)-1;
while(!isalpha(*ptr))
    ptr--;
// truncate
*(ptr+1) = 0;