[java] How to capitalize the first character of each word in a string

Is there a function built into Java that capitalizes the first character of each word in a String, and does not affect the others?

Examples:

  • jon skeet -> Jon Skeet
  • miles o'Brien -> Miles O'Brien (B remains capital, this rules out Title Case)
  • old mcdonald -> Old Mcdonald*

*(Old McDonald would be find too, but I don't expect it to be THAT smart.)

A quick look at the Java String Documentation reveals only toUpperCase() and toLowerCase(), which of course do not provide the desired behavior. Naturally, Google results are dominated by those two functions. It seems like a wheel that must have been invented already, so it couldn't hurt to ask so I can use it in the future.

This question is related to java string uppercase lowercase capitalization

The answer is


If you're only worried about the first letter of the first word being capitalized:

private String capitalize(final String line) {
   return Character.toUpperCase(line.charAt(0)) + line.substring(1);
}

1. Java 8 Streams

public static String capitalizeAll(String str) {
    if (str == null || str.isEmpty()) {
        return str;
    }

    return Arrays.stream(str.split("\\s+"))
            .map(t -> t.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + t.substring(1))
            .collect(Collectors.joining(" "));
}

Examples:

System.out.println(capitalizeAll("jon skeet")); // Jon Skeet
System.out.println(capitalizeAll("miles o'Brien")); // Miles O'Brien
System.out.println(capitalizeAll("old mcdonald")); // Old Mcdonald
System.out.println(capitalizeAll(null)); // null

For foo bAR to Foo Bar, replace the map() method with the following:

.map(t -> t.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + t.substring(1).toLowerCase())

2. String.replaceAll() (Java 9+)

ublic static String capitalizeAll(String str) {
    if (str == null || str.isEmpty()) {
        return str;
    }

    return Pattern.compile("\\b(.)(.*?)\\b")
            .matcher(str)
            .replaceAll(match -> match.group(1).toUpperCase() + match.group(2));
}

Examples:

System.out.println(capitalizeAll("12 ways to learn java")); // 12 Ways To Learn Java
System.out.println(capitalizeAll("i am atta")); // I Am Atta
System.out.println(capitalizeAll(null)); // null

3. Apache Commons Text

System.out.println(WordUtils.capitalize("love is everywhere")); // Love Is Everywhere
System.out.println(WordUtils.capitalize("sky, sky, blue sky!")); // Sky, Sky, Blue Sky!
System.out.println(WordUtils.capitalize(null)); // null

For titlecase:

System.out.println(WordUtils.capitalizeFully("fOO bAR")); // Foo Bar
System.out.println(WordUtils.capitalizeFully("sKy is BLUE!")); // Sky Is Blue!

For details, checkout this tutorial.


Here is RxJava solution to the problem

    String title = "this is a title";
    StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
    Observable.fromArray(title.trim().split("\\s"))
        .map(word -> word.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + word.substring(1).toLowerCase())
        .toList()
        .map(wordList -> {
            for (String word : wordList) {
                stringBuilder.append(word).append(" ");
            }
            return stringBuilder.toString();
        })
        .subscribe(result -> System.out.println(result));

I don't yet like the for loop inside map though.


I just want to add an alternative solution for the problem by using only Java code. No extra library

public String Capitalize(String str) {

            String tt = "";
            String tempString = "";
            String tempName = str.trim().toLowerCase();
            String[] tempNameArr = tempName.split(" ");
            System.out.println("The size is " + tempNameArr.length);
            if (tempNameArr.length > 1) {
                for (String t : tempNameArr) {
                    tt += Capitalize(t);
                    tt += " ";
                }
                tempString  = tt;
            } else {
                tempString = tempName.replaceFirst(String.valueOf(tempName.charAt(0)), String.valueOf(tempName.charAt(0)).toUpperCase());
            }
            return tempString.trim();
        }

I use wordUppercase(String s) from the Raindrop-Library. Because this is my library, here the single method:

 /**
  * Set set first letter from every word uppercase.
  *
  * @param s - The String wich you want to convert.
  * @return The string where is the first letter of every word uppercase.
  */
 public static String wordUppercase(String s){
   String[] words = s.split(" ");
   for (int i = 0; i < words.length; i++) words[i] = words[i].substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + words[i].substring(1).toLowerCase();
   return String.join(" ", words);
 }

Hope it helps :)


public static String toTitleCase(String word){
    return Character.toUpperCase(word.charAt(0)) + word.substring(1);
}

public static void main(String[] args){
    String phrase = "this is to be title cased";
    String[] splitPhrase = phrase.split(" ");
    String result = "";

    for(String word: splitPhrase){
        result += toTitleCase(word) + " ";
    }
    System.out.println(result.trim());
}

Simple answer by program:


public class StringCamelCase {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String[] articles = {"the ", "a ", "one ", "some ", "any "};
        String[] result = new String[articles.length];
        int i = 0;
        for (String string : articles) {
            result[i++] = toUpercaseForstChar(string);
        }

        for (String string : result) {
            System.out.println(string);
        }
    }
    public static String toUpercaseForstChar(String string){
        return new String(new char[]{string.charAt(0)}).toUpperCase() + string.substring(1,string.length());
    }
}

Here is my solution.

I ran across this problem tonight and decided to search it. I found an answer by Neelam Singh that was almost there, so I decided to fix the issue (broke on empty strings) and caused a system crash.

The method you are looking for is named capString(String s) below. It turns "It's only 5am here" into "It's Only 5am Here".

The code is pretty well commented, so enjoy.

package com.lincolnwdaniel.interactivestory.model;

    public class StringS {

    /**
     * @param s is a string of any length, ideally only one word
     * @return a capitalized string.
     * only the first letter of the string is made to uppercase
     */
    public static String capSingleWord(String s) {
        if(s.isEmpty() || s.length()<2) {
            return Character.toUpperCase(s.charAt(0))+"";
        } 
        else {
            return Character.toUpperCase(s.charAt(0)) + s.substring(1);
        }
    }

    /**
     *
     * @param s is a string of any length
     * @return a title cased string.
     * All first letter of each word is made to uppercase
     */
    public static String capString(String s) {
        // Check if the string is empty, if it is, return it immediately
        if(s.isEmpty()){
            return s;
        }

        // Split string on space and create array of words
        String[] arr = s.split(" ");
        // Create a string buffer to hold the new capitalized string
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();

        // Check if the array is empty (would be caused by the passage of s as an empty string [i.g "" or " "],
        // If it is, return the original string immediately
        if( arr.length < 1 ){
            return s;
        }

        for (int i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
            sb.append(Character.toUpperCase(arr[i].charAt(0)))
                    .append(arr[i].substring(1)).append(" ");
        }
        return sb.toString().trim();
    }
}

If you prefer Guava...

String myString = ...;

String capWords = Joiner.on(' ').join(Iterables.transform(Splitter.on(' ').omitEmptyStrings().split(myString), new Function<String, String>() {
    public String apply(String input) {
        return Character.toUpperCase(input.charAt(0)) + input.substring(1);
    }
}));

public void capitaliseFirstLetterOfEachWord()
{
    String value="this will capitalise first character of each word of this string";
    String[] wordSplit=value.split(" ");
    StringBuilder sb=new StringBuilder();

    for (int i=0;i<wordSplit.length;i++){

        sb.append(wordSplit[i].substring(0,1).toUpperCase().
                concat(wordSplit[i].substring(1)).concat(" "));
    }
    System.out.println(sb);
}

This one works for the surname case...

With different types of separators, and it keeps the same separator:

  • jean-frederic --> Jean-Frederic

  • jean frederic --> Jean Frederic

The code works with the GWT client side.

public static String capitalize (String givenString) {
    String Separateur = " ,.-;";
    StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(); 
    boolean ToCap = true;
    for (int i = 0; i < givenString.length(); i++) {
        if (ToCap)              
            sb.append(Character.toUpperCase(givenString.charAt(i)));
        else
            sb.append(Character.toLowerCase(givenString.charAt(i)));

        if (Separateur.indexOf(givenString.charAt(i)) >=0) 
            ToCap = true;
        else
            ToCap = false;
    }          
    return sb.toString().trim();
}  

The following method converts all the letters into upper/lower case, depending on their position near a space or other special chars.

public static String capitalizeString(String string) {
  char[] chars = string.toLowerCase().toCharArray();
  boolean found = false;
  for (int i = 0; i < chars.length; i++) {
    if (!found && Character.isLetter(chars[i])) {
      chars[i] = Character.toUpperCase(chars[i]);
      found = true;
    } else if (Character.isWhitespace(chars[i]) || chars[i]=='.' || chars[i]=='\'') { // You can add other chars here
      found = false;
    }
  }
  return String.valueOf(chars);
}

This might be useful if you need to capitalize titles. It capitalizes each substring delimited by " ", except for specified strings such as "a" or "the". I haven't ran it yet because it's late, should be fine though. Uses Apache Commons StringUtils.join() at one point. You can substitute it with a simple loop if you wish.

private static String capitalize(String string) {
    if (string == null) return null;
    String[] wordArray = string.split(" "); // Split string to analyze word by word.
    int i = 0;
lowercase:
    for (String word : wordArray) {
        if (word != wordArray[0]) { // First word always in capital
            String [] lowercaseWords = {"a", "an", "as", "and", "although", "at", "because", "but", "by", "for", "in", "nor", "of", "on", "or", "so", "the", "to", "up", "yet"};
            for (String word2 : lowercaseWords) {
                if (word.equals(word2)) {
                    wordArray[i] = word;
                    i++;
                    continue lowercase;
                }
            }
        }
        char[] characterArray = word.toCharArray();
        characterArray[0] = Character.toTitleCase(characterArray[0]);
        wordArray[i] = new String(characterArray);
        i++;
    }
    return StringUtils.join(wordArray, " "); // Re-join string
}

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));   

System.out.println("Enter the sentence : ");

try
{
    String str = br.readLine();
    char[] str1 = new char[str.length()];

    for(int i=0; i<str.length(); i++)
    {
        str1[i] = Character.toLowerCase(str.charAt(i));
    }

    str1[0] = Character.toUpperCase(str1[0]);
    for(int i=0;i<str.length();i++)
    {
        if(str1[i] == ' ')
        {                   
            str1[i+1] =  Character.toUpperCase(str1[i+1]);
        }
        System.out.print(str1[i]);
    }
}
catch(Exception e)
{
    System.err.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
}

// So simple and basic

public void capalizedFirstCharOne(String str){
    char[] charArray=str.toCharArray();
    charArray[0]=Character.toUpperCase(charArray[0]);
    for(int i=1;i<charArray.length;i++){
        if(charArray[i]==' ' ){
            charArray[i+1]=Character.toUpperCase(charArray[i+1]);
        }
    }

    String result=new String(charArray);
    System.out.println(result);
}

This is just another way of doing it:

private String capitalize(String line)
{
    StringTokenizer token =new StringTokenizer(line);
    String CapLine="";
    while(token.hasMoreTokens())
    {
        String tok = token.nextToken().toString();
        CapLine += Character.toUpperCase(tok.charAt(0))+ tok.substring(1)+" ";        
    }
    return CapLine.substring(0,CapLine.length()-1);
}

Try this very simple way

example givenString="ram is good boy"

public static String toTitleCase(String givenString) {
    String[] arr = givenString.split(" ");
    StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();

    for (int i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
        sb.append(Character.toUpperCase(arr[i].charAt(0)))
            .append(arr[i].substring(1)).append(" ");
    }          
    return sb.toString().trim();
}  

Output will be: Ram Is Good Boy


String s="hi dude i                                 want apple";
    s = s.replaceAll("\\s+"," ");
    String[] split = s.split(" ");
    s="";
    for (int i = 0; i < split.length; i++) {
        split[i]=Character.toUpperCase(split[i].charAt(0))+split[i].substring(1);
        s+=split[i]+" ";
        System.out.println(split[i]);
    }
    System.out.println(s);

You can also do it very simply like this and preserve any doubled and leading, trailing whitespaces

public static String capitalizeWords(String text) {

    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    if(text.length()>0){
        sb.append(Character.toUpperCase(text.charAt(0)));
    }
    for (int i=1; i<text.length(); i++){
        String chPrev = String.valueOf(text.charAt(i-1));
        String ch = String.valueOf(text.charAt(i));

        if(Objects.equals(chPrev, " ")){
            sb.append(ch.toUpperCase());
        }else {
            sb.append(ch);
        }

    }

    return sb.toString();

}

Here is a simple function

public static String capEachWord(String source){
    String result = "";
    String[] splitString = source.split(" ");
    for(String target : splitString){
        result += Character.toUpperCase(target.charAt(0))
                + target.substring(1) + " ";
    }
    return result.trim();
}

There are many way to convert the first letter of the first word being capitalized. I have an idea. It's very simple:

public String capitalize(String str){

     /* The first thing we do is remove whitespace from string */
     String c = str.replaceAll("\\s+", " ");
     String s = c.trim();
     String l = "";

     for(int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++){
          if(i == 0){                              /* Uppercase the first letter in strings */
              l += s.toUpperCase().charAt(i);
              i++;                                 /* To i = i + 1 because we don't need to add               
                                                    value i = 0 into string l */
          }

          l += s.charAt(i);

          if(s.charAt(i) == 32){                   /* If we meet whitespace (32 in ASCII Code is whitespace) */
              l += s.toUpperCase().charAt(i+1);    /* Uppercase the letter after whitespace */
              i++;                                 /* Yo i = i + 1 because we don't need to add
                                                   value whitespace into string l */
          }        
     }
     return l;
}

I had a requirement to make a generic toString(Object obj) helper class function, where I had to convert the fieldnames into methodnames - getXXX() of the passed Object.

Here is the code

/**
 * @author DPARASOU
 * Utility method to replace the first char of a string with uppercase but leave other chars as it is.
 * ToString() 
 * @param inStr - String
 * @return String
 */
public static String firstCaps(String inStr)
{
    if (inStr != null && inStr.length() > 0)
    {
        char[] outStr = inStr.toCharArray();
        outStr[0] = Character.toUpperCase(outStr[0]);
        return String.valueOf(outStr);
    }
    else
        return inStr;
}

And my toString() utility is like this

public static String getToString(Object obj)
{
    StringBuilder toString = new StringBuilder();
    toString.append(obj.getClass().getSimpleName());
    toString.append("[");
    for(Field f : obj.getClass().getDeclaredFields())
    {
        toString.append(f.getName());
        toString.append("=");
        try{
            //toString.append(f.get(obj)); //access privilege issue
            toString.append(invokeGetter(obj, firstCaps(f.getName()), "get"));
        }
        catch(Exception e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        toString.append(", ");        
    }
    toString.setCharAt(toString.length()-2, ']');
    return toString.toString();
}

Reusable method for intiCap:

    public class YarlagaddaSireeshTest{

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String FinalStringIs = "";
        String testNames = "sireesh yarlagadda test";
        String[] name = testNames.split("\\s");

        for(String nameIs :name){
            FinalStringIs += getIntiCapString(nameIs) + ",";
        }
        System.out.println("Final Result "+ FinalStringIs);
    }

    public static String getIntiCapString(String param) {
        if(param != null && param.length()>0){          
            char[] charArray = param.toCharArray(); 
            charArray[0] = Character.toUpperCase(charArray[0]); 
            return new String(charArray); 
        }
        else {
            return "";
        }
    }
}

Using org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils makes it very simple.

capitalizeStr = StringUtils.capitalize(str);

package corejava.string.intern;

import java.io.DataInputStream;

import java.util.ArrayList;

/*
 * wap to accept only 3 sentences and convert first character of each word into upper case
 */

public class Accept3Lines_FirstCharUppercase {

    static String line;
    static String words[];
    static ArrayList<String> list=new ArrayList<String>();

    /**
     * @param args
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) throws java.lang.Exception{

        DataInputStream read=new DataInputStream(System.in);
        System.out.println("Enter only three sentences");
        int i=0;
        while((line=read.readLine())!=null){
            method(line);       //main logic of the code
            if((i++)==2){
                break;
            }
        }
        display();
        System.out.println("\n End of the program");

    }

    /*
     * this will display all the elements in an array
     */
    public static void display(){
        for(String display:list){
            System.out.println(display);
        }
    }

    /*
     * this divide the line of string into words 
     * and first char of the each word is converted to upper case
     * and to an array list
     */
    public static void method(String lineParam){
        words=line.split("\\s");
        for(String s:words){
            String result=s.substring(0,1).toUpperCase()+s.substring(1);
            list.add(result);
        }
    }

}

I'm using the following function. I think it is faster in performance.

public static String capitalize(String text){
    String c = (text != null)? text.trim() : "";
    String[] words = c.split(" ");
    String result = "";
    for(String w : words){
        result += (w.length() > 1? w.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase(Locale.US) + w.substring(1, w.length()).toLowerCase(Locale.US) : w) + " ";
    }
    return result.trim();
}

this is another way i did

    StringBuilder str=new StringBuilder("pirai sudie test test");

    str.setCharAt(0,Character.toUpperCase(str.charAt(0)));

    for(int i=str.length()-1;i>=0;i--)
    {
        if(Character.isSpaceChar(str.charAt(i)))
            str.setCharAt(i+1,Character.toUpperCase(str.charAt(i+1)));
    }

    System.out.println(str);

I made a solution in Java 8 that is IMHO more readable.

public String firstLetterCapitalWithSingleSpace(final String words) {
    return Stream.of(words.trim().split("\\s"))
    .filter(word -> word.length() > 0)
    .map(word -> word.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + word.substring(1))
    .collect(Collectors.joining(" "));
}

The Gist for this solution can be found here: https://gist.github.com/Hylke1982/166a792313c5e2df9d31


String text="hello";
StringBuffer sb=new StringBuffer();
char[] ch=text.toCharArray();
for(int i=0;i<ch.length;i++){
    if(i==0){
        sb.append(Character.toUpperCase(ch[i]));
    }
    else{
    sb.append(ch[i]);
    }
}


text=sb.toString();
System.out.println(text);
}

Since nobody used regexp's let's do it with regexp's. This solution is for fun. :) (update: actually I just discovered that there is an answer with regexps, anyway I would like to leave this answer in place since it is better looking :) ):

public class Capitol 
{
    public static String now(String str)
    {
        StringBuffer b = new StringBuffer();
        Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\\b(\\w){1}");
        Matcher m = p.matcher(str);
        while (m.find())
        {
            String s = m.group(1);
            m.appendReplacement(b, s.toUpperCase());
        }
        m.appendTail(b);
        return b.toString();
    }
}

Usage

Capitol.now("ab cd"));
Capitol.now("winnie the Pooh"));
Capitol.now("please talk loudly!"));
Capitol.now("miles o'Brien"));

I made this little class that can be used to capitilize each word in a sentence. You can change the word separator in the string if this is not a space.

package com.ecnews.ecnews_v01.Helpers;

  public class Capitalize {

  String sentence;
  String separator = " ";

  public Capitalize(String sentence) {
    this.sentence = sentence;
  }

  public void setSeparator(String separator) {
    this.separator = separator;
  }

  public String getCapitalized() {
    StringBuilder capitalized = new StringBuilder("");
    for (String word : sentence.split(separator)) {
        capitalized.append(separator+Character.toUpperCase(word.charAt(0)) + word.substring(1));
    }
    return capitalized.toString().trim();
  }

}

Example:

String sourceName = new Capitalize("this is a test").getCapitalized();

sourceName will be "This Is A Test"


I've written a small Class to capitalize all the words in a String.

Optional multiple delimiters, each one with its behavior (capitalize before, after, or both, to handle cases like O'Brian);

Optional Locale;

Don't breaks with Surrogate Pairs.

LIVE DEMO

Output:

====================================
 SIMPLE USAGE
====================================
Source: cApItAlIzE this string after WHITE SPACES
Output: Capitalize This String After White Spaces

====================================
 SINGLE CUSTOM-DELIMITER USAGE
====================================
Source: capitalize this string ONLY before'and''after'''APEX
Output: Capitalize this string only beforE'AnD''AfteR'''Apex

====================================
 MULTIPLE CUSTOM-DELIMITER USAGE
====================================
Source: capitalize this string AFTER SPACES, BEFORE'APEX, and #AFTER AND BEFORE# NUMBER SIGN (#)
Output: Capitalize This String After Spaces, BeforE'apex, And #After And BeforE# Number Sign (#)

====================================
 SIMPLE USAGE WITH CUSTOM LOCALE
====================================
Source: Uniforming the first and last vowels (different kind of 'i's) of the Turkish word D[I]YARBAK[I]R (DIYARBAKIR) 
Output: Uniforming The First And Last Vowels (different Kind Of 'i's) Of The Turkish Word D[i]yarbak[i]r (diyarbakir) 

====================================
 SIMPLE USAGE WITH A SURROGATE PAIR 
====================================
Source: ab c de à
Output: Ab c De À

Note: first letter will always be capitalized (edit the source if you don't want that).

Please share your comments and help me to found bugs or to improve the code...

Code:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Locale;

public class WordsCapitalizer {

    public static String capitalizeEveryWord(String source) {
        return capitalizeEveryWord(source,null,null);
    }

    public static String capitalizeEveryWord(String source, Locale locale) {
        return capitalizeEveryWord(source,null,locale);
    }

    public static String capitalizeEveryWord(String source, List<Delimiter> delimiters, Locale locale) {
        char[] chars; 

        if (delimiters == null || delimiters.size() == 0)
            delimiters = getDefaultDelimiters();                

        // If Locale specified, i18n toLowerCase is executed, to handle specific behaviors (eg. Turkish dotted and dotless 'i')
        if (locale!=null)
            chars = source.toLowerCase(locale).toCharArray();
        else 
            chars = source.toLowerCase().toCharArray();

        // First charachter ALWAYS capitalized, if it is a Letter.
        if (chars.length>0 && Character.isLetter(chars[0]) && !isSurrogate(chars[0])){
            chars[0] = Character.toUpperCase(chars[0]);
        }

        for (int i = 0; i < chars.length; i++) {
            if (!isSurrogate(chars[i]) && !Character.isLetter(chars[i])) {
                // Current char is not a Letter; gonna check if it is a delimitrer.
                for (Delimiter delimiter : delimiters){
                    if (delimiter.getDelimiter()==chars[i]){
                        // Delimiter found, applying rules...                       
                        if (delimiter.capitalizeBefore() && i>0 
                            && Character.isLetter(chars[i-1]) && !isSurrogate(chars[i-1]))
                        {   // previous character is a Letter and I have to capitalize it
                            chars[i-1] = Character.toUpperCase(chars[i-1]);
                        }
                        if (delimiter.capitalizeAfter() && i<chars.length-1 
                            && Character.isLetter(chars[i+1]) && !isSurrogate(chars[i+1]))
                        {   // next character is a Letter and I have to capitalize it
                            chars[i+1] = Character.toUpperCase(chars[i+1]);
                        }
                        break;
                    }
                } 
            }
        }
        return String.valueOf(chars);
    }


    private static boolean isSurrogate(char chr){
        // Check if the current character is part of an UTF-16 Surrogate Pair.  
        // Note: not validating the pair, just used to bypass (any found part of) it.
        return (Character.isHighSurrogate(chr) || Character.isLowSurrogate(chr));
    }       

    private static List<Delimiter> getDefaultDelimiters(){
        // If no delimiter specified, "Capitalize after space" rule is set by default. 
        List<Delimiter> delimiters = new ArrayList<Delimiter>();
        delimiters.add(new Delimiter(Behavior.CAPITALIZE_AFTER_MARKER, ' '));
        return delimiters;
    } 

    public static class Delimiter {
        private Behavior behavior;
        private char delimiter;

        public Delimiter(Behavior behavior, char delimiter) {
            super();
            this.behavior = behavior;
            this.delimiter = delimiter;
        }

        public boolean capitalizeBefore(){
            return (behavior.equals(Behavior.CAPITALIZE_BEFORE_MARKER)
                    || behavior.equals(Behavior.CAPITALIZE_BEFORE_AND_AFTER_MARKER));
        }

        public boolean capitalizeAfter(){
            return (behavior.equals(Behavior.CAPITALIZE_AFTER_MARKER)
                    || behavior.equals(Behavior.CAPITALIZE_BEFORE_AND_AFTER_MARKER));
        }

        public char getDelimiter() {
            return delimiter;
        }
    }

    public static enum Behavior {
        CAPITALIZE_AFTER_MARKER(0),
        CAPITALIZE_BEFORE_MARKER(1),
        CAPITALIZE_BEFORE_AND_AFTER_MARKER(2);                      

        private int value;          

        private Behavior(int value) {
            this.value = value;
        }

        public int getValue() {
            return value;
        }           
    } 

From Java 9+

you can use String::replaceAll like this :

public static void upperCaseAllFirstCharacter(String text) {
    String regex = "\\b(.)(.*?)\\b";
    String result = Pattern.compile(regex).matcher(text).replaceAll(
            matche -> matche.group(1).toUpperCase() + matche.group(2)
    );

    System.out.println(result);
}

Example :

upperCaseAllFirstCharacter("hello this is Just a test");

Outputs

Hello This Is Just A Test

With this simple code:

String example="hello";

example=example.substring(0,1).toUpperCase()+example.substring(1, example.length());

System.out.println(example);

Result: Hello


Try this:

 private String capitalizer(String word){

        String[] words = word.split(" ");
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        if (words[0].length() > 0) {
            sb.append(Character.toUpperCase(words[0].charAt(0)) + words[0].subSequence(1, words[0].length()).toString().toLowerCase());
            for (int i = 1; i < words.length; i++) {
                sb.append(" ");
                sb.append(Character.toUpperCase(words[i].charAt(0)) + words[i].subSequence(1, words[i].length()).toString().toLowerCase());
            }
        }
        return  sb.toString();
    }

  package com.test;

 /**
   * @author Prasanth Pillai
   * @date 01-Feb-2012
   * @description : Below is the test class details
   * 
   * inputs a String from a user. Expect the String to contain spaces and    alphanumeric     characters only.
   * capitalizes all first letters of the words in the given String.
   * preserves all other characters (including spaces) in the String.
   * displays the result to the user.
   * 
   * Approach : I have followed a simple approach. However there are many string    utilities available 
   * for the same purpose. Example : WordUtils.capitalize(str) (from apache commons-lang)
   *
   */
  import java.io.BufferedReader;
  import java.io.IOException;
  import java.io.InputStreamReader;

  public class Test {

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException{
    System.out.println("Input String :\n");
    InputStreamReader converter = new InputStreamReader(System.in);
    BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(converter);
    String inputString = in.readLine();
    int length = inputString.length();
    StringBuffer newStr = new StringBuffer(0);
    int i = 0;
    int k = 0;
    /* This is a simple approach
     * step 1: scan through the input string
     * step 2: capitalize the first letter of each word in string
     * The integer k, is used as a value to determine whether the 
     * letter is the first letter in each word in the string.
     */

    while( i < length){
        if (Character.isLetter(inputString.charAt(i))){
            if ( k == 0){
            newStr = newStr.append(Character.toUpperCase(inputString.charAt(i)));
            k = 2;
            }//this else loop is to avoid repeatation of the first letter in output string 
            else {
            newStr = newStr.append(inputString.charAt(i));
            }
        } // for the letters which are not first letter, simply append to the output string. 
        else {
            newStr = newStr.append(inputString.charAt(i));
            k=0;
        }
        i+=1;           
    }
    System.out.println("new String ->"+newStr);
    }
}

Heres a lil program I was using to capitalize each first letter word in every subfolder of a parent directory.

private void capitalize(String string)
{
    List<String> delimiters = new ArrayList<>();
    delimiters.add(" ");
    delimiters.add("_");

    File folder = new File(string);
    String name = folder.getName();
    String[] characters = name.split("");

    String newName = "";
    boolean capitalizeNext = false;

    for (int i = 0; i < characters.length; i++)
    {
        String character = characters[i];

        if (capitalizeNext || i == 0)
        {
            newName += character.toUpperCase();
            capitalizeNext = false;
        }
        else
        {
            if (delimiters.contains(character)) capitalizeNext = true;
            newName += character;
        }
    }

    folder.renameTo(new File(folder.getParent() + File.separator + newName));
}

String toBeCapped = "i want this sentence capitalized";

String[] tokens = toBeCapped.split("\\s");
toBeCapped = "";

for(int i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++){
    char capLetter = Character.toUpperCase(tokens[i].charAt(0));
    toBeCapped +=  " " + capLetter + tokens[i].substring(1);
}
toBeCapped = toBeCapped.trim();

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    String words = "this is a test";

    System.out.println(Arrays.asList(words.split(" ")).stream().reduce("",(a, b)->(a + " " + b.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + b.substring(1))));


}

}


Use the Split method to split your string into words, then use the built in string functions to capitalize each word, then append together.

Pseudo-code (ish)

string = "the sentence you want to apply caps to";
words = string.split(" ") 
string = ""
for(String w: words)

//This line is an easy way to capitalize a word
    word = word.toUpperCase().replace(word.substring(1), word.substring(1).toLowerCase())

    string += word

In the end string looks something like "The Sentence You Want To Apply Caps To"


Here we go for perfect first char capitalization of word

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String input ="my name is ranjan";
    String[] inputArr = input.split(" ");

    for(String word : inputArr) {
        System.out.println(word.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase()+word.substring(1,word.length()));
    }   
}

}

//Output : My Name Is Ranjan


import java.io.*;
public class Upch2
{
   BufferedReader br= new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader(System.in));
   public void main()throws IOException
    { 
        System.out.println("Pl. Enter A Line");
        String s=br.readLine();
        String s1=" ";
        s=" "+s;
        int len=s.length();
        s= s.toLowerCase();
        for(int j=1;j<len;j++)
         {
           char  ch=s.charAt(j);

           if(s.charAt(j-1)!=' ')
           {
             ch=Character.toLowerCase((s.charAt(j)));
           }
           else
           {
             ch=Character.toUpperCase((s.charAt(j)));
            }
            s1=s1+ch;
          }
     System.out.println(" "+s1);
  }
}

I decided to add one more solution for capitalizing words in a string:

  • words are defined here as adjacent letter-or-digit characters;
  • surrogate pairs are provided as well;
  • the code has been optimized for performance; and
  • it is still compact.

Function:

public static String capitalize(String string) {
  final int sl = string.length();
  final StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(sl);
  boolean lod = false;
  for(int s = 0; s < sl; s++) {
    final int cp = string.codePointAt(s);
    sb.appendCodePoint(lod ? Character.toLowerCase(cp) : Character.toUpperCase(cp));
    lod = Character.isLetterOrDigit(cp);
    if(!Character.isBmpCodePoint(cp)) s++;
  }
  return sb.toString();
}

Example call:

System.out.println(capitalize("An à la carte StRiNg. Surrogate pairs: ."));

Result:

An À La Carte String. Surrogate Pairs: .

The most basic and easiest way to understand (I think):

import java.util.Scanner;

public class ToUpperCase {
    static Scanner kb = new Scanner(System.in);

    public static String capitalize(String str){
        /* Changes 1st letter of every word 
           in a string to upper case
         */
        String[] ss = str.split(" ");
        StringBuilder[] sb = new StringBuilder[ss.length];
        StringBuilder capped = new StringBuilder("");
        str = "";

        // Capitalise letters
        for (int i = 0; i < ss.length; i++){
            sb[i] = new StringBuilder(ss[i]); // Construct and assign
            str += Character.toUpperCase(ss[i].charAt(0)); // Only caps
            //======================================================//

            // Replace 1st letters with cap letters
            sb[i].setCharAt(0, str.charAt(i)); 
            capped.append(sb[i].toString() + " ");  // Formatting
        }
        return capped.toString();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args){
        System.out.println(capitalize(kb.nextLine()));
    }
}

For those of you using Velocity in your MVC, you can use the capitalizeFirstLetter() method from the StringUtils class.


String toUpperCaseFirstLetterOnly(String str) {
    String[] words = str.split(" ");
    StringBuilder ret = new StringBuilder();
    for(int i = 0; i < words.length; i++) {
        ret.append(Character.toUpperCase(words[i].charAt(0)));
        ret.append(words[i].substring(1));
        if(i < words.length - 1) {
            ret.append(' ');
        }
    }
    return ret.toString();
}

The short and precise way is as follows:

String name = "test";

name = (name.length() != 0) ?name.toString().toLowerCase().substring(0,1).toUpperCase().concat(name.substring(1)): name;
--------------------
Output
--------------------
Test
T 
empty
--------------------

It works without error if you try and change the name value to the three of values. Error free.


Use:

    String text = "jon skeet, miles o'brien, old mcdonald";

    Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\b([a-z])([\\w]*)");
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(text);
    StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
    while (matcher.find()) {
        matcher.appendReplacement(buffer, matcher.group(1).toUpperCase() + matcher.group(2));
    }
    String capitalized = matcher.appendTail(buffer).toString();
    System.out.println(capitalized);

Here is the Kotlin version of the same problem:

fun capitalizeFirstLetterOfEveryWord(text: String): String
{
    if (text.isEmpty() || text.isBlank())
    {
        return ""
    }

    if (text.length == 1)
    {
        return Character.toUpperCase(text[0]).toString()
    }

    val textArray = text.split(" ")
    val stringBuilder = StringBuilder()

    for ((index, item) in textArray.withIndex())
    {
        // If item is empty string, continue to next item
        if (item.isEmpty())
        {
            continue
        }

        stringBuilder
            .append(Character.toUpperCase(item[0]))

        // If the item has only one character then continue to next item because we have already capitalized it.
        if (item.length == 1)
        {
            continue
        }

        for (i in 1 until item.length)
        {
            stringBuilder
                .append(Character.toLowerCase(item[i]))
        }

        if (index < textArray.lastIndex)
        {
            stringBuilder
                .append(" ")
        }
    }

    return stringBuilder.toString()
}

    s.toLowerCase().trim();
    result += Character.toUpperCase(s.charAt(0));
    result += s.substring(1, s.indexOf(" ") + 1);
    s = s.substring(s.indexOf(" ") + 1);

    do {
        if (s.contains(" ")) {
            result += " ";
            result += Character.toUpperCase(s.charAt(0));
            result += s.substring(1, s.indexOf(" "));
            s = s.substring(s.indexOf(" ") + 1);
        } else {
            result += " ";
            result += Character.toUpperCase(s.charAt(0));
            result += s.substring(1);
            break;
        }
    } while (true);
    System.out.println(result);

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