How to capitalize the first letter of text in a TextView in an Android Application

Question

I'm not referring to textInput, either. I mean that once you have static text in a TextView (populated from a Database call to user inputted data (that may not be Capitalized)), how can I make sure they are capitalized?

Thanks!

For future visitors... In Kotlin just use "abcd".capitalize()) — Amit Tumkur, Dec 20 '18 at 09:41
`capitalize`is deprecated, I've added why and workaround as an answer - https://stackoverflow.com/a/67482851/80428 — Jay Wick, May 11 '21 at 08:15

score 218 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 18 '20 at 14:10

218

I should be able to accomplish this through standard java string manipulation, nothing Android or TextView specific.

Something like:

String upperString = myString.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + myString.substring(1).toLowerCase();

Although there are probably a million ways to accomplish this. See String documentation.

EDITED I added the .toLowerCase()

edited Mar 18 '20 at 14:10

Hrk

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answered Aug 05 '10 at 22:07

Cheryl Simon

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Just wanted to note that this is a good solution for English, but not localization friendly. – Billy Lazzaro May 16 '16 at 15:28

score 84 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 16 '20 at 05:00

84

Following does not apply to TextView, but works with EditText; even then, it applies to the text entered from the keyboard, not the text loaded with setText(). To be more specific, it turns the Caps on in the keyboard, and the user can override this at her will.

android:inputType="textCapSentences"

or

TV.sname.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_TEXT_FLAG_CAP_SENTENCES);

This will CAP the first letter.

or

compile 'org.apache.commons:commons-lang3:3.4' //in build.gradle module(app)

tv.setText(StringUtils.capitalize(myString.toLowerCase().trim()));

edited Jan 16 '20 at 05:00

Shubham AgaRwal

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answered Jan 14 '14 at 01:47

Beto Caldas

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This does not apply to TextView, but only to EditText; even then, it applies to text entered from keyboard, not the text loaded with setText(). To be more specific, it turns the Caps on in the keyboard, and the user can override this at her will. – Alex Cohn Feb 17 '15 at 08:09

score 35 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 05 '19 at 03:31

35

for Kotlin, just call

textview.text = string.capitalize()

answered Jul 05 '19 at 03:31

Ben Kax

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I would have thought it would capitalize each word but it is indeed working for the first word only. – Skoua Feb 01 '20 at 23:21
1

If you are using this in the multilingual app, passing locale makes it better. – Dharmendra Pratap Singh Feb 19 '20 at 13:18
1

Capitalize was deprecated as of 1.5, added my answer to alternative here https://stackoverflow.com/a/67482851/80428 – Jay Wick May 11 '21 at 08:17

score 34 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 09 '13 at 13:11

34

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(name);
sb.setCharAt(0, Character.toUpperCase(sb.charAt(0)));  
return sb.toString();

answered Jan 09 '13 at 13:11

noloman

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score 10 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 19 '16 at 17:18

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You can add Apache Commons Lang in Gradle like compile 'org.apache.commons:commons-lang3:3.4'

And use WordUtils.capitalizeFully(name)

answered Feb 19 '16 at 17:18

Prakash

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info: lang3 WordUtils is deprecated, you should use "org.apache.commons.text.WordUtils" instead: https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-text/javadocs/api-release/org/apache/commons/text/WordUtils.html#capitalizeFully(java.lang.String) – gabhor Dec 10 '18 at 13:52

score 4 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

4

For future visitors, you can also (best IMHO) import WordUtil from Apache and add a lot of useful methods to you app, like capitalize as shown here:

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

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

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answered May 07 '13 at 18:47

Androiderson

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score 4 · Answer 7 · answered May 08 '18 at 07:59

For me none of working:

Function:

private String getCapsSentences(String tagName) {
    String[] splits = tagName.toLowerCase().split(" ");
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for (int i = 0; i < splits.length; i++) {
        String eachWord = splits[i];
        if (i > 0 && eachWord.length() > 0) {
            sb.append(" ");
        }
        String cap = eachWord.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() 
                + eachWord.substring(1);
        sb.append(cap);
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

Result:

I/P brain O/P Brain

I/P Brain and Health O/P Brain And Health

I/P brain And health to O/P Brain And Health

I/P brain's Health to O/P Brain's Health

I/P brain's Health and leg to O/P Brain's Health And Leg

Hope this would help you.

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered May 14 '20 at 14:58

4

For Kotlin, if you want to be sure that the format is "Aaaaaaaaa" you can use :

myString.toLowerCase(Locale.getDefault()).capitalize()

answered May 14 '20 at 14:58

VinceMedi

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score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 17 '19 at 11:56

The accepted answer is good, but if you are using it to get values from a textView in android, it would be good to check if the string is empty. If the string is empty it would throw an exception.

private String capitizeString(String name){
    String captilizedString="";
    if(!name.trim().equals("")){
       captilizedString = name.substring(0,1).toUpperCase() + name.substring(1);
    }
    return captilizedString;
}

score 3 · Answer 10 · answered May 11 '21 at 08:11

Note that Kotlin's .capitalize() is deprecated as of 1.5 as it isn't locale friendly. The suggestion is to use .replaceFirstChar()

Android Studio warns me

Implicitly using the default locale is a common source of bugs: Use capitalize(Locale) instead. For strings meant to be internal use Locale.ROOT, otherwise Locale.getDefault().

Thanks to the built in autofix, I made this extension function

fun String.titlecase(): String =
    this.replaceFirstChar { // it: Char
        if (it.isLowerCase())
            it.titlecase(Locale.getDefault())
        else
            it.toString()
    }

Kotlin [release docs](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/whatsnew15.html#stable-locale-agnostic-api-for-upper-lowercasing-text) say use `String.replaceFirstChar { it.uppercase() }` as alternative. it uses `Locale.ROOT` — P Kuijpers, Jun 08 '21 at 15:48

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 30 '21 at 13:54

2

Add Kotlin Extension

fun String.firstCap()=this.replaceFirstChar { it.uppercase() }

Usecase

"lowercase letter".firstCap() //gives "Lowercase letter"

answered Jun 30 '21 at 13:54

Ngima Sherpa

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score 1 · Answer 12 · edited Mar 25 '17 at 12:07

1

Please create a custom TextView and use it :

public class CustomTextView extends TextView {

    public CapitalizedTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    @Override
    public void setText(CharSequence text, BufferType type) {
        if (text.length() > 0) {
            text = String.valueOf(text.charAt(0)).toUpperCase() + text.subSequence(1, text.length());
        }
        super.setText(text, type);
    }
}

edited Mar 25 '17 at 12:07

Mike

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answered Mar 17 '17 at 17:26

Shrini Jaiswal

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how do I make this CustomTextView to be appeared in Design of Activity/Fragments as drag and drop UI element? – Kostanos Feb 19 '19 at 16:01

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 16 '20 at 08:29

Here I have written a detailed article on the topic, as we have several options, Capitalize First Letter of String in Android

Method to Capitalize First Letter of String in Java

public static String capitalizeString(String str) {
        String retStr = str;
        try { // We can face index out of bound exception if the string is null
            retStr = str.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + str.substring(1);
        }catch (Exception e){}
        return retStr;
}

Method to Capitalize First Letter of String in Kotlin

fun capitalizeString(str: String): String {
        var retStr = str
        try { // We can face index out of bound exception if the string is null
            retStr = str.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + str.substring(1)
        } catch (e: Exception) {
        }
        return retStr
}

Using XML Attribute

Or you can set this attribute in TextView or EditText in XML

android:inputType="textCapSentences"

score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Mar 05 '21 at 09:29

For those using Jetpack Compose, you should use Compose's String.capitalize(locale: Locale), instead of Kotlin's, as follows:

import androidx.compose.ui.text.capitalize
import androidx.compose.ui.text.intl.Locale
    
Text("my text".capitalize(Locale.current)) // capitalizes first letter
Text("my text".toUpperCase(Locale.current)) // all caps

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered May 17 '22 at 10:50

1

by using below property

android:inputType="textCapSentences|textCapWords"

answered May 17 '22 at 10:50

Atif AbbAsi

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Only when it's an EditText. Not on normal textview. It'll give you a warning in Android Studio. – Udayaditya Barua Jun 18 '23 at 06:33

Basant · Answer 16 · 2021-11-19T13:36:37.350

0

These lines of code helped me

String[] message_list=message.split(" ");
    String full_message="";

    for (int i=0; i<message_list.length; i++)
    {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(message_list[i]);
        sb.setCharAt(0, Character.toUpperCase(sb.charAt(0)));
        full_message=full_message+" "+sb;
    }

    textview_message.setText(full_message);

edited Nov 19 '21 at 13:36

answered Nov 19 '21 at 13:20

Basant

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score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Feb 23 '22 at 17:20

In Android XML this can be done with data-binding.

Once enabled in the build.gradle:

android {
    buildFeatures {
        dataBinding = true
    }
}

One can use it to generate data-bindings from XML, which do permit simple code statements:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <data>
        <import type="java.util.Locale"/>
    </data>

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.LinearLayoutCompat
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical">

        <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView
            android:id="@+id/role"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text='@{ user.role != null ? user.role.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase(Locale.getDefault()) + user.role.substring(1) : "n/a" }'
            android:gravity="center_vertical"
            android:textSize="12sp"/>

    </androidx.appcompat.widget.LinearLayoutCompat>

</layout>

Obviously, one could as well import Kotlin or JetPack Compose classes ...

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Jul 21 '22 at 06:47

0

//Capitalize the first letter of the words
public String Capitalize(String str) {
    String[] arr = str.split(" "); //convert String to StringArray
    StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

    for (String w : arr) {
        if (w.length() > 1) {
            stringBuilder.append(w.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase(Locale.US) + w.substring(1).toLowerCase(Locale.US) + " ");
        }
    }
    return stringBuilder.toString().trim();
}

answered Jul 21 '22 at 06:47

trylearning2022

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Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Jul 25 '22 at 14:48

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Jun 12 '23 at 14:50

0

fun TextView.capitalizeWords() {
    text = text.split(" ").joinToString(" ") { it.replaceFirstChar { char -> char.uppercaseChar() } }
}

answered Jun 12 '23 at 14:50

AndroidCoolestRulest

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score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Jun 27 '23 at 18:51

0

Update 2023 June, Use this Extension

fun String.toTitleCase() = replaceFirstChar { text -> if (text.isLowerCase()) text.titlecase(
Locale.getDefault()) else text.toString() }

answered Jun 27 '23 at 18:51

Aleksandr Zurnachyan

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score -1 · Answer 21 · answered Dec 18 '22 at 14:14

-1

With Kotlin:

textview.text = string.replaceFirstChar(Char::uppercase)

answered Dec 18 '22 at 14:14

francis

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How to capitalize the first letter of text in a TextView in an Android Application

21 Answers21

Add Kotlin Extension

Usecase

Linked