ucwords

(PHP 3 >= 3.0.3, PHP 4, PHP 5)

ucwords --  Uppercase the first character of each word in a string

Description

string ucwords ( string str )

Returns a string with the first character of each word in str capitalized, if that character is alphabetic.

The definition of a word is any string of characters that is immediately after a whitespace (These are: space, form-feed, newline, carriage return, horizontal tab, and vertical tab).

例子 1. ucwords() example

<?php
$foo
= 'hello world!';
$foo = ucwords($foo);             // Hello World!

$bar = 'HELLO WORLD!';
$bar = ucwords($bar);             // HELLO WORLD!
$bar = ucwords(strtolower($bar)); // Hello World!
?>

注: 本函数可安全用于二进制对象。

See also strtoupper(), strtolower() and ucfirst().


add a note add a note User Contributed Notes
max at phoenixweb dot it
15-Sep-2006 10:35
I have rewritten a UCSMART function adding a feature to translate special ASCII char (windows occidental ascii charset):

You can edit/add/delete char by use the first two string (be carefull to preserve the order of the string).

Enjoy!

<?
$ASCII_SPC_MIN
= "";
$ASCII_SPC_MAX = "";

function
str2upper($text) {
   global
$ASCII_SPC_MIN,$ASCII_SPC_MAX;
   return
strtr(strtoupper($text),$ASCII_SPC_MIN,$ASCII_SPC_MAX);
}
function
str2lower($text) {
   global
$ASCII_SPC_MIN,$ASCII_SPC_MAX;
   return
strtr(strtolower($text),$ASCII_SPC_MAX,$ASCII_SPC_MIN);
}
function
ucsmart($text) {
   global
$ASCII_SPC_MIN;
   return
preg_replace(
      
'/([^a-z'.$ASCII_SPC_MIN.']|^)([a-z'.$ASCII_SPC_MIN.'])/e',
      
'"$1".str2upper("$2")',
      
str2lower($text)
   );
}
?>

Massimiliano Cuttini
marco at hotelsandgo dot com
10-Sep-2006 12:35
ucwords that works also with apices: '
for example: "aquila d'abruzzo" became "Aquila d'Abruzzo"
The second part after the // comment can removed! Is optimized for italian language (leave lowercase articles, prepositions, conjunctions) but easily changeable. Notice che "'s"!! for example "hotel 2000's" becames "Hotel 2000's".

   function my_ucwords($s)
       {
       $a=strtolower($s);
       $s=ucfirst($a);
       for($x=0; $x<strlen($s)-1; $x++)
           if(!ctype_alpha($s[$x])) $s[$x+1]=strtoupper($s[$x+1]);

       //Lascia minuscoli articoli, preposizioni, congiunzioni
       $minuscole=array("il", "lo", "la", "i", "gli", "le",                //ARTICOLI DETERMINATIVI
                 "un", "uno", "una",                        //ARTICOLI INDETERMINATIVI
                 "e",  "d", "l", "s", "un",                    //CONGIUNZIONI e CONTRATTI
                 "di", "a", "da", "in", "con", "su", "per", "tra", "fra",    //PREPOSIZIONI SEMPLICI
                 "del", "dello", "della", "dei", "degli", "delle",        //PREPOSIZIONI ARTICOLATE
                 "a", "al", "allo", "alla", "ai", "agli", "alle",
                 "da", "dal", "dallo", "dalla", "dai", "dagli", "dalle",
                 "in", "nel", "nello", "nella", "nei", "negli", "nelle",
                 "con", "col", "collo", "colla", "coi", "cogli", "colle",
                 "su", "sul", "sullo", "sulla", "sui", "sugli", "sulle",
                 "per", "pel", "pei");
      
       foreach($minuscole as $value)
           {
           $pos=strpos($a, $value);
           if( ( $pos>0 && $pos<strlen($s)-1 && !ctype_alpha($a[$pos-1]) && !ctype_alpha($a[$pos+1]) )    //CARATTERE IN MEZZO
           ||  ( $pos==strlen($s)-1 && !ctype_alpha($a[$pos-1]) ) )                    //CASO PARTICOLARE: carattere in fondo. x es: "hotel 2000's"
               $s[$pos]=strtolower($s[$pos]);
           }

       return $s;
       }

   function my_ucwords_essential($s)
       {
       $a=strtolower($s);
       $s=ucfirst($a);
       for($x=0; $x<strlen($s)-1; $x++)
           if(!ctype_alpha($s[$x])) $s[$x+1]=strtoupper($s[$x+1]);

       return $s;
       }

Can be rewritten better, I Know
philip at fcknet dot dk
08-Aug-2006 08:11
Before noticing this function I made the following function (that does the same as ucwords):

<?php
function firstUpper($string)
{
  
$string = str_replace(array("","",""), array("","",""), strtolower($string));
  
$ord = explode(" ", $string);
  
  
$return = "";
   foreach (
$ord as $val)
   {

      
$return .= " " . str_replace(array("","",""), array("","",""), strtoupper($val{0})) . substr($val,1,strlen($val)-1);
   }
   return
$return;
}
?>

It also converts Danish letters without using the setlocale function.
starmonkey [at] evolove [dot] net
05-Aug-2006 11:17
Simple helper function to walk through a nested array of strings and upper case them:

<?php
/**
 * Helper function to convert an array of strings to upper case words
 */
function _capitalize($input) {
   if(
is_array($input)) {
      
// recurse through array elements (using a reference)
      
foreach($input as &$value) {
          
$value = _capitalize($value);
       }
       return
$input;
   } elseif(
is_string($input)) {
      
// process this string
      
return ucwords($input);
   } else {
      
// all other data types, leave alone
      
return $input;
   }
}
?>
Ismet Togay
31-May-2006 08:07
Response to arif:

We do not need that long functions. In order to make ucwords() worked properly in Turkish words that contain speacial characters, we can use the following command in our php codes:

setlocale(LC_ALL, 'tr_TR');

This will set locale to Turkish.
lev at phpfox dot com
06-May-2006 04:44
In the function ucsmart() posted by ieure at php dot net on 04-Dec-2005 11:57, I found a similar problem in this function to what he found in igua's.

<?php
function ucsmart($text)
{
   return
preg_replace('/([^a-z]|^)([a-z])/e', '"$1".strtoupper("$2")',
                      
strtolower($text));
}
?>

"igua's code adds a backslash in front of the first single quote for me. This doesn't alter the content in any way other than changing case."

Actually, it did end up changing the content for me (php 5.0.4) in the way that this function escapes a single quotation (apostrophe) in the MIDDLE of a word.

For example:

who's online?

Became:

Who\'s Online?

The fix is simple however, and merely requires fine-tuning the regular expression:

<?php
function ucsmart($text)
{
   return
preg_replace('/([^a-z\']|^)([a-z])/e', '"$1".strtoupper("$2")',
                      
strtolower($text));
}
?>

(note: while previewing this note before adding it, I am noticing php's website is not correctly displaying the change I made as I wrote it. After the first a-z in the expression, the single quotation should be escaped... If it isn't you will get a parse error! And apoligies if my text here is colored as php code; not my fault!)

This will not escape a single quotation mark which occurs in the middle of a word... Though, you may find that might need to add other characters inside the regular expression if you use other special characters inside your words and if you get funky output.

It's a great expression though! Simple, yet very powerful. Kudos!
arif
29-Mar-2006 04:12
it can be used for Turkish alphabet.

function strtoupperTR($str){
   return strtr($str,
   "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz",
   "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ");
}
function strtolowerTR($str){
   return strtr($str,
   "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ",
   "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz");
}

function ucwordsTR($str)
{
   return preg_replace('/([^a-z]|^)([a-z])/e', '"$1".strtoupperTR("$2")',
                       strtolowerTR($str));
}
24-Dec-2005 11:34
"ieure at php dot net", your idea is pure poetry!

The function below will standardize the capitalization on people's names and the titles of reports and essays . You may need to adapt the lists in "$all_uppercase" and "$all_lowercase" to suit the data that you are working with.

function my_ucwords($str, $is_name=false) {
   // exceptions to standard case conversion
   if ($is_name) {
       $all_uppercase = '';
       $all_lowercase = 'De La|De Las|Der|Van De|Van Der|Vit De|Von|Or|And';
   } else {
       // addresses, essay titles ... and anything else
       $all_uppercase = 'Po|Rr|Se|Sw|Ne|Nw';
       $all_lowercase = 'A|And|As|By|In|Of|Or|To';
   }
   $prefixes = 'Mc';
   $suffixes = "'S";

   // captialize all first letters
   $str = preg_replace('/\\b(\\w)/e', 'strtoupper("$1")', strtolower(trim($str)));

   if ($all_uppercase) {
       // capitalize acronymns and initialisms e.g. PHP
       $str = preg_replace("/\\b($all_uppercase)\\b/e", 'strtoupper("$1")', $str);
   }
   if ($all_lowercase) {
       // decapitalize short words e.g. and
       if ($is_name) {
           // all occurences will be changed to lowercase
           $str = preg_replace("/\\b($all_lowercase)\\b/e", 'strtolower("$1")', $str);
       } else {
           // first and last word will not be changed to lower case (i.e. titles)
           $str = preg_replace("/(?<=\\W)($all_lowercase)(?=\\W)/e", 'strtolower("$1")', $str);
       }
   }
   if ($prefixes) {
       // capitalize letter after certain name prefixes e.g 'Mc'
       $str = preg_replace("/\\b($prefixes)(\\w)/e", '"$1".strtoupper("$2")', $str);
   }
   if ($suffixes) {
       // decapitalize certain word suffixes e.g. 's
       $str = preg_replace("/(\\w)($suffixes)\\b/e", '"$1".strtolower("$2")', $str);
   }
   return $str;
}

// A name example
print my_ucwords("MARIE-LOU VAN DER PLANCK-ST.JOHN", true);
// Output: Marie-Lou van der Planc-St.John

// A title example
print my_ucwords("to be or not to be");
// Output: "To Be or Not to Be"
ieure at php dot net
05-Dec-2005 06:57
Whoa guys, tone things down a bit here. No need to loop and implode. This is a one-line solution:

function ucsmart($text)
{
   return preg_replace('/([^a-z]|^)([a-z])/e', '"$1".strtoupper("$2")',
                       strtolower($text));
}

igua's code adds a backslash in front of the first single quote for me. This doesn't alter the content in any way other than changing case.
gothicbunny at hotmail dot com
09-Nov-2005 08:16
Here is a simple, yet winded, opposite to ucwords.

<?php
/*
   # lcwords v1.000
   # Convert the first word character to lowercase (opposite to ucwords)
   # input string
   # return string
*/
function lcwords($string)
{
  
/* Some temporary variables */
   #loop variable
  
$a = 0;
  
#store all words in this array to be imploded and returned
  
$string_new = array();
  
#create array of all words
  
$string_exp = explode(" ",$string);
   foreach(
$string_exp as $astring)
   {
       for(
$a=0;$a<strlen($astring);$a++)
       {
          
#check that the character we are at {pos $a} is a word
           #i.e. if the word was !A the code would fail at !
           #then loop to the next character and succeed at A
           #check at character position $a
          
if(preg_match("'\w'",$astring[$a]))
           {
              
$astring[$a] = strtolower($astring[$a]);
              
#end the loop
              
break;
           }
       }
      
$string_new[] = $astring;
   }
  
#recreate the string from array components using space deliminator
  
return implode(" ",$string_new);
}
?>

Of course a simplier way would be to use a callback, but I like working with long code :)
21-Oct-2005 07:14
Here's a  piece that allows you to use the contents of a directory..  capitalizes the words and make links.. this particular example splits file names at _ and only selects file with .htm extensions (thought you could use any extension and call it using  include()  or soom such)
ie my_file_name.htm will produce
<a href="my_file_name.htm">My File Name</a>

<?php
$path
= "/home/path/to/your/directory";
  
$mydir = dir($path);
   while((
$file = $mydir->read()) !== false) {
     if(
substr($file, -4)=='.htm'){
  
$trans = array("_" => " ", ".htm" => ""); // creates the editing array
  
$newlist = strtr($file, $trans); // edits using editing array
  
echo "<a href=\"".$file."\">".ucwords($newlist)."</a><br>";
     }
   }
  
?>
Static Bit
18-Sep-2005 11:01
// programming/repair -> Programming/Repair
// mcdonald    o'neil  -> McDonand O'Neil
// art    of street        -> Art of Street

function NomeProprio($nome)
   {
   //two space to one
   $nome = str_replace("  ", " ", $nome);
   $nome = str_replace("  ", " ", $nome);
   $nome = str_replace("  ", " ", $nome);

   $intervalo = 1;
   for ($i=0; $i < strlen($nome); $i++)
       {
       $letra = substr($nome,$i,1);
       if (((ord($letra) > 64) && (ord($letra) < 123)) || ((ord($letra) > 48) && (ord($letra) < 58)))
         {
         $checa_palavra = substr($nome, $i - 2, 2);
         if (!strcasecmp($checa_palavra, 'Mc') || !strcasecmp($checa_palavra, "O'"))
             {
             $novonome .= strtoupper($letra);
             }
           elseif ($intervalo)
             {
             $novonome .= strtoupper($letra);
             }
           else
             {
             $novonome .= strtolower($letra);
             }
         $intervalo=0;
         }
         else
         {
         $novonome .= $letra;
         $intervalo = 1;
         }
       }
   $novonome = str_replace(" Of ", " of ", $novonome);
   $novonome = str_replace(" Da ", " da ", $novonome);
   $novonome = str_replace(" De ", " de ", $novonome);
   $novonome = str_replace(" Do ", " do ", $novonome);
   $novonome = str_replace(" E " , " e " , $novonome);
   return $novonome;
   }
radley25 at nospam dot spamcop dot net
05-Jul-2005 11:06
In response to joshuamallory at yahoo dot com:

Using CSS to fix a PHP fault is not the ideal way to solve a problem. CSS is browser dependent and can only be used when the data is presented in a web page. A better fix would be something like this:

<?php
function better_ucwords($string) {
  
$string = ucwords($string);
  
$string = preg_replace('#[\\/][a-z]#e', "strtoupper('$0')", $string);
   return
$string;
}
?>
igua no-spam at coveruniverse dot com
08-Mar-2005 08:30
The code posted by neil doesn't fully do what is wanted. Try adding some more question marks at the end and it will return a not wanted string.

Below code will uppercase all your words regardless of the delimiter.

<?php
$text
= "What?No 'delimiters',shit \"happens\" here.this solves all problems???";
preg_match_all('/[A-Za-z]+|[^A-Za-z]+/', $text, $data);
for (
$i = 0; $i < count($data[0]); $i++) {
 
$data[0][$i] = ucfirst($data[0][$i]);
}
$text = implode("", $data[0]);
print
$text;
?>
arjini at gmail dot com
24-Jan-2005 04:20
Not so much ucwords() related as it is capital letter related. I often use camel casing (as do wikis), I needed a reason to reverse the camel casing.

function unCamelCase($str){
   $bits = preg_split('/([A-Z])/',$str,false,PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
   $a = array();
   array_shift($bits);
   for($i = 0; $i < count($bits); ++$i)
       if($i%2)
           $a[] = $bits[$i - 1].$bits[$i];
   return $a;
}

print_r(unCamelCase('MyFancyCamelCasedWord'));

Array
(
   [0] => My
   [1] => Fancy
   [2] => Camel
   [3] => Cased
   [4] => Word
)
joshuamallory at yahoo dot com
15-Nov-2004 12:08
If you want to format a string like...

<?php
   $string
= "computer programming/repair";
   print
ucwords($string);
?>

Output: Computer Programming/repair

Notice the word after the slash (Programming/repair) isn't capitalized. To fix this, use CSS...

<?php
   $string
= "computer programming/repair";
   print
'<p style="text-transform:capitalize">';
   print
ucwords($string);
   print
'<p>';
?>
babel - nospamplease - sympatico - ca
11-Feb-2004 12:26
Correction to the code of firewire at itsyourdomain dot com:

preg_replace_callback('/\b(\w)(\w+)?/',
   create_function('$a',
   'return strtoupper($a[1]) . ((sizeof($a) > 2 ) ? 
       strtolower($a[2]) : "");'),
   'p.s.: hello.this is my string.');

Will work with punctuation as well as spaces.
deepdene at email dot com
10-Dec-2002 03:20
A function knowing about name case (i.e. caps on McDonald etc)

function name_case($name)
{
   $newname = strtoupper($name[0]);   
   for ($i=1; $i < strlen($name); $i++)
   {
       $subed = substr($name, $i, 1);   
       if (((ord($subed) > 64) && (ord($subed) < 123)) ||
           ((ord($subed) > 48) && (ord($subed) < 58)))
       {
           $word_check = substr($name, $i - 2, 2);
           if (!strcasecmp($word_check, 'Mc') || !strcasecmp($word_check, "O'"))
           {
               $newname .= strtoupper($subed); 
           }
           else if ($break)
           {
              
               $newname .= strtoupper($subed);
           }
           else     
           {
               $newname .= strtolower($subed);
           }
             $break=0;
       }
       else
       {
           // not a letter - a boundary
             $newname .= $subed;
           $break=1;
       }
   }   
   return $newname;
}
firewire at itsyourdomain dot com
20-Nov-2002 07:13
For those that want to capitalize based on a regular expression.
print preg_replace_callback('/(\s|^)[a-z]/', create_function('$a', 'return strtoupper($a[0]);'), 'hello this is my string');

This is a quick untested example.
anton at titov dot net
26-Sep-2002 01:56
for those, who not avoid regular expressions, solution of discussed problem:

$text=preg_replace('/(\W)(\w)/e', '"\\1".strtoupper("\\2")', ucfirst(strtolower($text)));
fille at fukt dot bth dot se
27-Aug-2002 11:04
[Editor's note: For details on the bug see
http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=14655]

This function has a bug, and while waiting for the bug fix, here is a work-around pice of code.

When using international letters, you will get into troubles with the ucwords() function.

Example:

$string="xxxxx" will be "XxxXxx" after beeing processed by ucwords().

To get around it, I wrote some extra code that checks the string once more, and lowercases all letters that is not in the beginning of a word.

$string=ucwords($string);
//Bugfix from here on
for($i=0;$i<strlen($string);$i++)
   if((ctype_upper($string[$i]) &&( $string[$i-1]==" " || $i==0 ))!=TRUE)
       $string[$i]=strtolower($string[$i]);

Thia code is also an optional way of doing the same work on a string that is totally UPPERCASE.
27-Aug-2002 10:20
Beware of language when using this function to collate personal names! This may not work with some languages and this depends on the current locale!
So it's best to simply use strtoupper() or strtolower(strtoupper()) to collate names for searches in a database. Avoid using strtolower() directly, as it won't collate some characters like the german '' into 'ss'.
Capitalizing names is very language dependant: don't do it on address fields such as city names. Prefer uppercasing, or keep the original case if the string must be displayed to a user!
19-Jan-2002 10:14
This seems to be what people want:

function uc_all($string) {
   $temp = preg_split('/(\W)/', $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE );
   foreach ($temp as $key=>$word) {
       $temp[$key] = ucfirst(strtolower($word));
   }
   return join ('', $temp);
}

[ed note: fixed the code to be correct]
Julienc at psychologie-fr dot com
04-Nov-2001 11:06
Its still possible to clean a bit more the previous sample:

$string=strtolower($string); $break=true;
for ($i=0; $i < strlen($string); $i++) { $subed=$string[$i];
if (((ord($subed) > 64) && (ord($subed) < 123)) || ((ord($subed) > 48) && (ord($subed) < 58))) {
if ($break) { $string[$i] = strtoupper($subed); }
$break=false; } else { $break=true; }
}

- Julien
mlong at spammer=0 dot infoave dot net
21-Aug-2001 01:38
An evolution of the previous (a little more compact I think):

$name="ReaLLY s'CREWED Name, JR.";
$break=1;
for ($i=0; $i < strlen($name); $i++)
{
 $subed=substr($name,$i,1);
 # if its a letter or num
 if (((ord($subed) > 64) && (ord($subed) < 123)) ||
     ((ord($subed) > 48) && (ord($subed) < 58)))
 {
  if ($break) { $newname .= strtoupper($subed); }
  else        { $newname .= strtolower($subed); }
  $break=0;
 }
 else
 {
  # not a letter - a boundary
  $newname .= $subed;
  $break=1;
 }
}
echo "$newname\n";
mistcat at mistcat dot com
29-Mar-2001 06:00
Actually that code would work if you changed this line:
$words[0][] = $lastword;
to
$words[0][] = $lastword[0];
neil at no-spam-ents24 dot com
21-Mar-2001 09:10
The code posted above by Joerg Krause only works for a string which ends with one of the delimiters. A possible fix is:

$text = "What?No delimiters,shit happens here.this solves all problems.";
preg_match_all("/(\w+[,. ?])+/U", $text, $words);
preg_match("/(\w+)$/", $text, $lastword);
$words[0][] = $lastword;
foreach($words[0] as $part) $uwords[] = ucfirst($part);
$text = implode("", $uwords);
echo $text;
bobo at ii dot nl
18-Jul-2000 02:42
Mildly annoying, only spaces are considered whitespace by this function. So words right after linebreaks do not get capitalized. An explode/implode can help here.

$temp = explode ("\n", $capthis);
array_walk (&$temp, ucwords);
$capthis = implode ("\n", $temp);