How can I capitalize the first letter of each word in a string using JavaScript?

Question

I'm trying to write a function that capitalizes the first letter of every word in a string (converting the string to title case).

For instance, when the input is "I'm a little tea pot", I expect "I'm A Little Tea Pot" to be the output. However, the function returns "i'm a little tea pot".

This is my code:

function titleCase(str) {
  var splitStr = str.toLowerCase().split(" ");

  for (var i = 0; i < splitStr.length; i++) {
    if (splitStr.length[i] < splitStr.length) {
      splitStr[i].charAt(0).toUpperCase();
    }

    str = splitStr.join(" ");
  }

  return str;
}

console.log(titleCase("I'm a little tea pot"));

Answer 1

You are not assigning your changes to the array again, so all your efforts are in vain. Try this:

function titleCase(str) {
   var splitStr = str.toLowerCase().split(' ');
   for (var i = 0; i < splitStr.length; i++) {
       // You do not need to check if i is larger than splitStr length, as your for does that for you
       // Assign it back to the array
       splitStr[i] = splitStr[i].charAt(0).toUpperCase() + splitStr[i].substring(1);     
   }
   // Directly return the joined string
   return splitStr.join(' '); 
}

document.write(titleCase("I'm a little tea pot"));

Answer 2

You are making complex a very easy thing. You can add this in your CSS:

.capitalize {
    text-transform: capitalize;
}

In JavaScript, you can add the class to an element

 document.getElementById("element").className = "capitalize";

Answer 3

ECMAScript 6 version:

const toTitleCase = (phrase) => {
  return phrase
    .toLowerCase()
    .split(' ')
    .map(word => word.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + word.slice(1))
    .join(' ');
};

let result = toTitleCase('maRy hAd a lIttLe LaMb');
console.log(result);

Answer 4

Shortest One Liner (also extremely fast):

 text.replace(/(^\w|\s\w)/g, m => m.toUpperCase());

Explanation:

• ^\w : first character of the string
• | : or
• \s\w : first character after whitespace
• (^\w|\s\w) Capture the pattern.
• g Flag: Match all occurrences.

---

If you want to make sure the rest is in lowercase:

text.replace(/(^\w|\s\w)(\S*)/g, (_,m1,m2) => m1.toUpperCase()+m2.toLowerCase())

---

Example usage:

const toTitleCase = str => str.replace(/(^\w|\s\w)(\S*)/g, (_,m1,m2) => m1.toUpperCase()+m2.toLowerCase())

console.log(toTitleCase("heLLo worLd"));

Answer 5

I think this way should be faster; cause it doesn't split string and join it again; just using regex.

var str = text.toLowerCase().replace(/(^\w{1})|(\s{1}\w{1})/g, match => match.toUpperCase());

Explanation:

1. (^\w{1}): match first char of string
2. |: or
3. (\s{1}\w{1}): match one char that came after one space
4. g: match all
5. match => match.toUpperCase(): replace with can take function, so; replace match with upper case match

Answer 6

If you can use a third-party library then Lodash has a helper function for you.

https://lodash.com/docs/4.17.3#startCase

_.startCase('foo bar');
// => 'Foo Bar'

_.startCase('--foo-bar--');
// => 'Foo Bar'

_.startCase('fooBar');
// => 'Foo Bar'

_.startCase('__FOO_BAR__');
// => 'FOO BAR'

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/lodash/4.17.3/lodash.min.js"></script>

Answer 7

In ECMAScript 6, a one-line answer using the arrow function:

const captialize = words => words.split(' ').map( w =>  w.substring(0,1).toUpperCase()+ w.substring(1)).join(' ')

Answer 8

ECMAScript 6 version:

title
    .split(/ /g).map(word =>
        `${word.substring(0,1).toUpperCase()}${word.substring(1)}`)
    .join(" ");

Answer 9

text-transform: capitalize;

CSS has got it :)

Answer 10

-

You could simply use a regular expression function to change the capitalization of each letter. With V8 JIST optimizations, this should prove to be the fast and memory efficient.

// Only works on Latin-I strings
'tHe VeRy LOOong StRINg'.replace(/\b[a-z]|['_][a-z]|\B[A-Z]/g, function(x){return x[0]==="'"||x[0]==="_"?x:String.fromCharCode(x.charCodeAt(0)^32)})

Or, as a function:

// Only works for Latin-I strings
var fromCharCode = String.fromCharCode;
var firstLetterOfWordRegExp = /\b[a-z]|['_][a-z]|\B[A-Z]/g;
function toLatin1UpperCase(x){ // avoid frequent anonymous inline functions
    var charCode = x.charCodeAt(0);
    return charCode===39 ? x : fromCharCode(charCode^32);
}
function titleCase(string){
    return string.replace(firstLetterOfWordRegExp, toLatin1UpperCase);
}

According to this benchmark, the code is over 33% faster than the next best solution in Chrome.

<textarea id="input" type="text">I'm a little tea pot</textarea><br /><br />
<textarea id="output" type="text" readonly=""></textarea>
<script>
(function(){
    "use strict"
    var fromCode = String.fromCharCode;
    function upper(x){return x[0]==="'"?x:fromCode(x.charCodeAt(0) ^ 32)}
    (input.oninput = function(){
      output.value = input.value.replace(/\b[a-z]|['_][a-z]|\B[A-Z]/g, upper);
    })();
})();
</script>

Answer 11

Also a good option (particularly if you're using freeCodeCamp):

function titleCase(str) {
  var wordsArray = str.toLowerCase().split(/\s+/);
  var upperCased = wordsArray.map(function(word) {
    return word.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + word.substr(1);
  });
  return upperCased.join(" ");
}

Answer 12

This routine will handle hyphenated words and words with apostrophe.

function titleCase(txt) {
    var firstLtr = 0;
    for (var i = 0;i < text.length;i++) {
        if (i == 0 &&/[a-zA-Z]/.test(text.charAt(i)))
            firstLtr = 2;
        if (firstLtr == 0 &&/[a-zA-Z]/.test(text.charAt(i)))
            firstLtr = 2;
        if (firstLtr == 1 &&/[^a-zA-Z]/.test(text.charAt(i))){
            if (text.charAt(i) == "'") {
                if (i + 2 == text.length &&/[a-zA-Z]/.test(text.charAt(i + 1)))
                    firstLtr = 3;
                else if (i + 2 < text.length &&/[^a-zA-Z]/.test(text.charAt(i + 2)))
                    firstLtr = 3;
            }
        if (firstLtr == 3)
            firstLtr = 1;
        else
            firstLtr = 0;
        }
        if (firstLtr == 2) {
            firstLtr = 1;
            text = text.substr(0, i) + text.charAt(i).toUpperCase() + text.substr(i + 1);
        }
        else {
            text = text.substr(0, i) + text.charAt(i).toLowerCase() + text.substr(i + 1);
        }
    }
}

titleCase("pAt o'Neil's");
// returns "Pat O'Neil's";

Answer 13

I usually prefer not to use regexp because of readability and also I try to stay away from loops. I think this is kind of readable.

function capitalizeFirstLetter(string) {
    return string && string.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + string.substring(1);
};

Answer 14

You can use modern JS syntax which can make your life much easier. Here is my code snippet for the given problem:

const capitalizeString = string => string.split(' ').map(item => item.replace(item.charAt(0), item.charAt(0).toUpperCase())).join(' ');
capitalizeString('Hi! i am aditya shrivastwa')

Answer 15

Or it can be done using replace(), and replace each word's first letter with its "upperCase".

function titleCase(str) {
    return str.toLowerCase().split(' ').map(function(word) {
               return word.replace(word[0], word[0].toUpperCase());
           }).join(' ');
}

titleCase("I'm a little tea pot");

Answer 16

function LetterCapitalize(str) { 
  return str.split(" ").map(item=>item.substring(0,1).toUpperCase()+item.substring(1)).join(" ")
}

Answer 17

let cap = (str) => {
  let arr = str.split(' ');
  arr.forEach(function(item, index) {
    arr[index] = item.replace(item[0], item[0].toUpperCase());
  });

  return arr.join(' ');
};

console.log(cap("I'm a little tea pot"));

Fast Readable Version see benchmark http://jsben.ch/k3JVz

Answer 18

ES6 syntax

const captilizeAllWords = (sentence) => {
  if (typeof sentence !== "string") return sentence;
  return sentence.split(' ')
    .map(word => word.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + word.slice(1))
    .join(' ');
}


captilizeAllWords('Something is going on here')

Answer 19

function titleCase(str) {

    var myString = str.toLowerCase().split(' ');
    for (var i = 0; i < myString.length; i++) {
        var subString = myString[i].split('');
        for (var j = 0; j < subString.length; j++) {
            subString[0] = subString[0].toUpperCase();
        }
        myString[i] = subString.join('');
    }

    return myString.join(' ');
}

Answer 20

The function below does not change any other part of the string than trying to convert all the first letters of all words (i.e. by the regex definition \w+) to uppercase.

That means it does not necessarily convert words to Titlecase, but does exactly what the title of the question says: "Capitalize First Letter Of Each Word In A String - JavaScript"

• Don't split the string
• determine each word by the regex \w+ that is equivalent to [A-Za-z0-9_]+
  • apply function String.prototype.toUpperCase() only to the first character of each word.

function first_char_to_uppercase(argument) {
  return argument.replace(/\w+/g, function(word) {
    return word.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + word.slice(1);
  });
}

Examples:

first_char_to_uppercase("I'm a little tea pot");
// "I'M A Little Tea Pot"
// This may look wrong to you, but was the intended result for me
// You may wanna extend the regex to get the result you desire, e.g., /[\w']+/

first_char_to_uppercase("maRy hAd a lIttLe LaMb");
// "MaRy HAd A LIttLe LaMb"
// Again, it does not convert words to Titlecase

first_char_to_uppercase(
  "ExampleX: CamelCase/UPPERCASE&lowercase,exampleY:N0=apples"
);
// "ExampleX: CamelCase/UPPERCASE&Lowercase,ExampleY:N0=Apples"

first_char_to_uppercase("…n1=orangesFromSPAIN&&n2!='a sub-string inside'");
// "…N1=OrangesFromSPAIN&&N2!='A Sub-String Inside'"

first_char_to_uppercase("snake_case_example_.Train-case-example…");
// "Snake_case_example_.Train-Case-Example…"
// Note that underscore _ is part of the RegEx \w+

first_char_to_uppercase(
  "Capitalize First Letter of each word in a String - JavaScript"
);
// "Capitalize First Letter Of Each Word In A String - JavaScript"

Edit 2019-02-07: If you want actual Titlecase (i.e. only the first letter uppercase all others lowercase):

function titlecase_all_words(argument) {
  return argument.replace(/\w+/g, function(word) {
    return word.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + word.slice(1).toLowerCase();
  });
}

Examples showing both:

test_phrases = [
  "I'm a little tea pot",
  "maRy hAd a lIttLe LaMb",
  "ExampleX: CamelCase/UPPERCASE&lowercase,exampleY:N0=apples",
  "…n1=orangesFromSPAIN&&n2!='a sub-string inside'",
  "snake_case_example_.Train-case-example…",
  "Capitalize First Letter of each word in a String - JavaScript"
];
for (el in test_phrases) {
  let phrase = test_phrases[el];
  console.log(
    phrase,
    "<- input phrase\n",
    first_char_to_uppercase(phrase),
    "<- first_char_to_uppercase\n",
    titlecase_all_words(phrase),
    "<- titlecase_all_words\n "
  );
}

// I'm a little tea pot <- input phrase
// I'M A Little Tea Pot <- first_char_to_uppercase
// I'M A Little Tea Pot <- titlecase_all_words

// maRy hAd a lIttLe LaMb <- input phrase
// MaRy HAd A LIttLe LaMb <- first_char_to_uppercase
// Mary Had A Little Lamb <- titlecase_all_words

// ExampleX: CamelCase/UPPERCASE&lowercase,exampleY:N0=apples <- input phrase
// ExampleX: CamelCase/UPPERCASE&Lowercase,ExampleY:N0=Apples <- first_char_to_uppercase
// Examplex: Camelcase/Uppercase&Lowercase,Exampley:N0=Apples <- titlecase_all_words

// …n1=orangesFromSPAIN&&n2!='a sub-string inside' <- input phrase
// …N1=OrangesFromSPAIN&&N2!='A Sub-String Inside' <- first_char_to_uppercase
// …N1=Orangesfromspain&&N2!='A Sub-String Inside' <- titlecase_all_words

// snake_case_example_.Train-case-example… <- input phrase
// Snake_case_example_.Train-Case-Example… <- first_char_to_uppercase
// Snake_case_example_.Train-Case-Example… <- titlecase_all_words

// Capitalize First Letter of each word in a String - JavaScript <- input phrase
// Capitalize First Letter Of Each Word In A String - JavaScript <- first_char_to_uppercase
// Capitalize First Letter Of Each Word In A String - Javascript <- titlecase_all_words

Answer 21

TypeScript fat arrow FTW

export const formatTitleCase = (string: string) =>
    string
        .toLowerCase()
        .split(" ")
        .map((word) => word.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + word.substring(1))
        .join(" ");

Answer 22

Here a simple one-liner

const ucFirst = t => t.replace(/(^|\s)[A-Za-zÀ-ÖØ-öø-ÿ]/g, c => c.toUpperCase());

Note that it only changes case of first letter of every word, you might want to use it as so:

console.log(ucFirst('foO bAr'));
// FoO BAr

console.log(ucFirst('foO bAr'.toLowerCase()));
// Foo Bar

// works with accents too
console.log(ucFirst('éfoO bAr'));
// ÉfoO BAr

Or based on String.prototype here is one that handles several modes:

String.prototype.ucFirst = function (mode = 'eachWord') {
  const modes = {
    eachWord: /(^|\s)[A-Za-zÀ-ÖØ-öø-ÿ]/g,
    firstWord: /(^|\s)[A-Za-zÀ-ÖØ-öø-ÿ]/,
    firstChar: /^[A-Za-zÀ-ÖØ-öø-ÿ]/,
    firstLetter: /[A-Za-zÀ-ÖØ-öø-ÿ]/,
  };

  if (mode in modes) {
    return this.replace(modes[mode], c => c.toUpperCase());
  } else {
    throw `error: ucFirst invalid mode (${mode}). Parameter should be one of: ` + Object.keys(modes).join('|');
  }
};

console.log('eachWord', 'foO bAr'.ucFirst());
// FoO BAr

console.log('eachWord', 'foO bAr'.toLowerCase().ucFirst());
// Foo Bar

console.log('firstWord', '1foO bAr'.ucFirst('firstWord'));
// 1foO BAr

console.log('firstChar', '1foO bAr'.ucFirst('firstChar'));
// 1foO bAr

console.log('firstLetter', '1foO bAr'.ucFirst('firstLetter'));
// 1FoO bAr

Edit:

Or based on String.prototype one that handles several modes and an optional second argument to specify word separators (String or RegExp):

String.prototype.ucFirst = function (mode = 'eachWord', wordSeparator = /\s/) {
  const letters = /[A-Za-zÀ-ÖØ-öø-ÿ]/;
  const ws =
    '^|' +
    (wordSeparator instanceof RegExp
      ? '(' + wordSeparator.source + ')'
      : // sanitize string for RegExp https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3446170/escape-string-for-use-in-javascript-regex#comment52837041_6969486
        '[' + wordSeparator.replace(/[[{}()*+?^$|\]\.\\]/g, '\\$&') + ']');

  const r =
    mode === 'firstLetter'
      ? letters
      : mode === 'firstChar'
      ? new RegExp('^' + letters.source)
      : mode === 'firstWord' || mode === 'eachWord'
      ? new RegExp(
          '(' + ws + ')' + letters.source,
          mode === 'eachWord' ? 'g' : undefined
        )
      : undefined;

  if (r) {
    return this.replace(r, (c) => c.toUpperCase());
  } else {
    throw `error: ucFirst invalid mode (${mode}). Parameter should be one of: firstLetter|firstChar|firstWord|eachWord`;
  }
};

console.log("mike o'hara".ucFirst('eachWord', " \t\r\n\f\v'"));
// Mike O'Hara
console.log("mike o'hara".ucFirst('eachWord', /[\s']/));
// Mike O'Hara

Answer 23

A more compact (and modern) rewrite of @somethingthere's proposed solution:

let titleCase = (str => str.toLowerCase().split(' ').map(
                c => c.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + c.substring(1)).join(' '));
    
document.write(titleCase("I'm an even smaller tea pot"));

Answer 24

Here's how you could do it with the map function basically, it does the same as the accepted answer but without the for-loop. Hence, saves you few lines of code.

function titleCase(text) {
  if (!text) return text;
  if (typeof text !== 'string') throw "invalid argument";

  return text.toLowerCase().split(' ').map(value => {
    return value.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + value.substring(1);
  }).join(' ');
}

console.log(titleCase("I'm A little tea pot"));

Answer 25

Below is another way to capitalize the first alphabet of each word in a string.

Create a custom method for a String object by using prototype.

String.prototype.capitalize = function() {
    var c = '';
    var s = this.split(' ');
    for (var i = 0; i < s.length; i++) {
        c+= s[i].charAt(0).toUpperCase() + s[i].slice(1) + ' ';
    }
    return c;
}
var name = "john doe";
document.write(name.capitalize());

Answer 26

Raw code:

function capi(str) {
    var s2 = str.trim().toLowerCase().split(' ');
    var s3 = [];
    s2.forEach(function(elem, i) {
        s3.push(elem.charAt(0).toUpperCase().concat(elem.substring(1)));
    });
    return s3.join(' ');
}
capi('JavaScript string exasd');

Answer 27

I used replace() with a regular expression:

function titleCase(str) {

  var newStr = str.toLowerCase().replace(/./, (x) => x.toUpperCase()).replace(/[^']\b\w/g, (y) => y.toUpperCase());

  console.log(newStr);
}

titleCase("I'm a little tea pot")

Answer 28

A complete and simple solution goes here:

String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, replacement) {
        return this.substr(0, index) + replacement+ this.substr(index
  + replacement.length);
}
var str = 'k j g           u              i l  p';
function capitalizeAndRemoveMoreThanOneSpaceInAString() {
    for(let i  = 0; i < str.length-1; i++) {
        if(str[i] === ' ' && str[i+1] !== '')
            str = str.replaceAt(i+1, str[i+1].toUpperCase());
    }
    return str.replaceAt(0, str[0].toUpperCase()).replace(/\s+/g, ' ');
}
console.log(capitalizeAndRemoveMoreThanOneSpaceInAString(str));

Answer 29

/* 1. Transform your string into lower case
   2. Split your string into an array. Notice the white space I'm using for the separator
   3. Iterate the new array, and assign the current iteration value (array[c]) a new formatted string:
      - With the sentence: array[c][0].toUpperCase() the first letter of the string converts to upper case.
      - With the sentence: array[c].substring(1) we get the rest of the string (from the second letter index to the last one).
      - The "add" (+) character is for concatenate both strings.
   4. return array.join(' ') // Returns the formatted array like a new string. */


function titleCase(str){
    str = str.toLowerCase();
    var array = str.split(' ');
    for(var c = 0; c < array.length; c++){
        array[c] = array[c][0].toUpperCase() + array[c].substring(1);
    }
    return array.join(' ');
}

titleCase("I'm a little tea pot");

Answer 30

Please check the code below.

function titleCase(str) {
  var splitStr = str.toLowerCase().split(' ');
  var nstr = ""; 
  for (var i = 0; i < splitStr.length; i++) {
    nstr +=  (splitStr[i].charAt(0).toUpperCase()+ splitStr[i].slice(1) + " 
    ");
  }
  console.log(nstr);
}

var strng = "this is a new demo for checking the string";
titleCase(strng);

Answer 31

As of ECMA2017 or ES8

const titleCase = (string) => {
  return string
    .split(' ')
    .map(word => word.substr(0,1).toUpperCase() + word.substr(1,word.length))
    .join(' ');
};

let result = titleCase('test test test');
console.log(result);

Explanation:
1. First, we pass the string "test test test" to our function "titleCase".
2. We split a string on the space basis so the result of first function "split" will be ["test","test","test"]
3. As we got an array, we used map function for manipulation each word in the array. We capitalize the first character and add remaining character to it.
4. In the last, we join the array using space as we split the string by sapce.

Answer 32

function titleCase(str) {
  //First of all, lets make all the characters lower case
  let lowerCaseString = "";
  for (let i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
    lowerCaseString = lowerCaseString + str[i].toLowerCase();
  }
  //Now lets make the first character in the string and the character after the empty character upper case and leave therest as it is
  let i = 0;
  let upperCaseString = "";
  while (i < lowerCaseString.length) {
    if (i == 0) {
      upperCaseString = upperCaseString + lowerCaseString[i].toUpperCase();
    } else if (lowerCaseString[i - 1] == " ") {
      upperCaseString = upperCaseString + lowerCaseString[i].toUpperCase();
    } else {
      upperCaseString = upperCaseString + lowerCaseString[i];
    }
    i = i + 1;
  }
  console.log(upperCaseString);

  return upperCaseString;
}

titleCase("hello woRLD");

Answer 33

Here I have used three functions toLowerCase(), toUpperCase() and replace(regex,replacer)

function titleCase(str) { 
     return str.toLowerCase().replace(/^(\w)|\s(\w)/g, (grp) => grp.toUpperCase()); 
}

titleCase("I'm a little tea pot");

Answer 34

This is a simple method to convert and is able to pass a value to get the desired output.

String.prototype.toChangeCase = function (type) {
    switch (type) {
        case 'upper-first':
            return this.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + this.substr(1).toLowerCase();
        case 'upper-each':
            return this.split(' ').map(word => {
                return word.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + word.substr(1).toLowerCase();
            }).join(' ');
        default:
            throw Error(`In order to get the output pass a value 'upper-first', 'upper-each'`);
    }
}

Outputs

"capitalize first Letter of Each word in a Sstring".toChangeCase('upper-first')
"Capitalize first letter of each word in a sstring"


"capitalize first Letter of Each word in a Sstring".toChangeCase('upper-each')
"Capitalize First Letter Of Each Word In A Sstring"

"Capitalize First Letter Of Each Word In A String".toChangeCase()
VM380:12 Uncaught Error: In order to get the output pass a value 'upper-first', 'upper-each'
    at String.toChangeCase (<anonymous>:12:19)
    at <anonymous>:16:52

Answer 35

Here I used the replace() function.

function titleCase(str){
    return str.replace(/\w\S*/g, function(txt){return txt.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + txt.substr(1).toLowerCase();});
}

Answer 36

let string = "I'm a little tea pot";

Now, create a function that will take a string as an argument.

function titleCase(str) {
   return str.split(" ").map(s => s.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + s.substr(1).toLowerCase()).join(" ")
} 

Output

titleCase(string); // "I'm A Little Tea Pot"

Answer 37

You could do it is simple way like this in one line with map with toUpperCase:

    text.split(' ').map(w => { let t = w.split(''); t[0] = t[0].toUpperCase(); return t.join('') }).join(' ')

Answer 38

I have done this using this code below, hope it will help you:

<p id="p1">This is a paragraph.</p>

<script>
   const capitalize = (mySentence) => {
      const words = mySentence.split(" ");
      for (let i = 0; i < words.length; i++) {
         words[i] = words[i][0].toUpperCase() + words[i].substr(1);
      }
      return words.join(" ");
   };  
   const result = capitalize('This is a sample text');
   document.getElementById("p1").innerHTML = result;
</script>

Answer 39

var str = "hello world"
var result = str.split(" ").map(element => {
    return element[0].toUpperCase() + element.slice(1);
});
result = result.join(" ")
console.log(result);

Answer 40

Try This Function:

const capitializeName = (name) => {
 
     const splitName = name.split(' ');
        const namesUpper = [];

    for (const n of splitName) {
        namesUpper.push(n[0].toUpperCase() + n.slice(1));
    }
    console.log(namesUpper.join(' '));
};

capitializeName('jahid bhuiyan');

Answer 41

You can build upon this inputString[0].toUpperCase() + inputString.slice(1).toLowerCase() :)