Capitalize words in a string - taking into account parenthesis etc

Question

I've been reviewing the answers on How to capitalize the first letter of each word in a string using JavaScript? but yet can't get any to work.

I'm trying to capitalize the first letter of each word in a string. But with an example such as I'm an example (for stack overflow). the word for is not capitalized.

Is there a way to do this?

This in fact depends on what you will consider the start of the sentence. Does text after ( or [ or " or ' or < or { mean the start of a sentence? Will this `` also need to change to `` ? — Mohsen Alyafei, Jun 25 '20 at 22:33

Mosh Feu · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-26T11:20:32.643

2

You can use regex - ^([a-z])|[ (]+([a-z]) which says "every letter after a space or (. (If there are more cases, add them to the pattern)

And the code is

const result = `i'm an example (for stack overflow).`
  .replace(/^([a-z])|[ (]+([a-z])/g, l => l.toUpperCase())
  
console.log(result);

You can play with the regex here: https://regex101.com/r/gkZvyt/1

edited Jun 26 '20 at 11:20

answered Jun 25 '20 at 16:02

Mosh Feu

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Thank you, how can I combine this so it makes the entire sentence capitalized for each word? – panthro Jun 25 '20 at 19:12
1

What do you mean? What should be the result? – Mosh Feu Jun 25 '20 at 20:52
Thanks @StephenP, You're right. I've updated the answer. – Mosh Feu Jun 25 '20 at 22:26
I'm afraid this still doesnt work with the first character of a string being lowercase, thanks anyway. – panthro Jun 26 '20 at 09:56
I built the regex based on your example. If I understand you correctly you want to uppercase also that expression - `i'm an example (for stack overflow).`. I've updated the answer to handle that case too.. – Mosh Feu Jun 26 '20 at 11:22
Thanks for all your help. – panthro Jun 26 '20 at 11:41
My pleasure Good luck! – Mosh Feu Jun 26 '20 at 12:01

BatshevaRich · Answer 2 · 2020-06-25T20:34:14.543

1

It is actually simple using regex.
Replace the ^ symbol, which means only capitalize the beginning of the sentence.
For more information and play with regex, click Here.

 const capitalize = str =>
  str.replace(/(?:\s|["([{])+\S/g, match => match.toUpperCase());
console.log(capitalize("I'm an example (for stack overflow)."));

edited Jun 25 '20 at 20:34

answered Jun 25 '20 at 16:09

BatshevaRich

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Thank you, how can I combine this so it makes the entire sentence capitalized for each word? – panthro Jun 25 '20 at 19:12
@panthro changed the answer, is this what you meant? – BatshevaRich Jun 25 '20 at 20:34
I'm afraid this still doesnt work with the first character of a string being lowercase, thanks anyway. – panthro Jun 26 '20 at 09:56

Capitalize words in a string - taking into account parenthesis etc

2 Answers2