ProperCase class <see body>

[Kabal]

Anyone have a better way to implement the below code...


public class ProperCase {
private ProperCase() {
}

public static String convert(String s) {
char[] chars = s.trim().toLowerCase().toCharArray();
boolean found = false;

for (int i=0; i<chars.length; i++) {
if (!found && Character.isLetter(chars)) {
chars = Character.toUpperCase(chars);
found = true;
} else if (Character.isWhitespace(chars)) {
found = false;
}
}

return String.valueOf(chars);
}
}

 

[Will Clark]

I think that is a good way of doing it... of course, if you are trying to
optimise it, there are things you can do if you first know something about
the characters in the string to convert...

For example: if you know the "whitespace" is only ever a SPACE (char = 0x20)
then only check for this instead of calling Character.isWhitespace which
checks a whole range of different whitespace characters

Also, for example: if you know that the string only contains the letters a
to z, apart from the whitespace, then to get uppercase form of the letters a
to z, just subtract 0x20 from the character... ie:

if (!found && chars >= 'a' && chars <= 'z')
{
chars = chars - 0x20;
found = true;
}
else if (chars == ' ')
{
found = false;
}

 

[Chris Berg]

What's wrong with s.toUpperCase(); ??

 

[Chris Riesbeck]

What's wrong with s.toUpperCase(); ??

Proper Case means capitalizing the very first letter
and the first letter after each space and no others.

 

[Roedy Green]

Proper Case means capitalizing the very first letter
and the first letter after each space and no others.

see http://mindprod.com/products.html#BUS

download the business classes. In the class Misc is a method
call something like toTitleCase or toBookcase that does what you want.

There is also similar code in the Quoter amanuensis. See
http://mindprod.com/quoter.html

 

[Wojtek]

Anyone have a better way to implement the below code...

Sorry about the weird formatting, but the word wrap munges it...

/**
* This method will capitalize a String.
*
* It is assumed that the input String is a person's name. The
following rules are applied:
* <ul>
* <li>First letter is capitalized:
* <ul>
* <li>bill becomes Bill</li>
* </ul>
* </li>
* <li>mc and mac are respected:
* <ul>
* <li>mcphersen becomes McPhersen</li>
* <li>macdonald becomes MacDonald</li>
* </ul>
* </li>
* </ul>
*
* @param theValue
* @return String
*/
public static String properName(String theValue)
{
try
{
return
convertProperName(theValue.trim().toLowerCase());
}
catch (NullPointerException e)
{
return "";
}
}

/**
* This method will capitalize a String.
*
* It is assumed that the input String contains one or more person's
names. The following rules are applied:
* <ul>
* <li>First letter of each name is capitalized:
* <ul>
* <li>bill smith becomes Bill Smith</li>
* </ul>
* </li>
* <li>mc and mac are respected:
* <ul>
* <li>bill mcphersen becomes Bill McPhersen</li>
* <li>bill macdonald becomes Bill MacDonald</li>
* <li>bill a. macdonald becomes Bill A. MacDonald</li>
* <li>bill a.t. macdonald becomes Bill A.T. MacDonald</li>
* </ul>
* </li>
* </ul>
*
* @param theValue
* @return String
*/
public static String properNames(String theValue)
{
StringTokenizer names;

try
{
names = new
StringTokenizer(theValue.trim().toLowerCase());
}
catch (NullPointerException e)
{
return "";
}

StringBuffer out = new StringBuffer();
boolean moreNames = false;
String name;

while (names.hasMoreElements())
{
if (moreNames)
out.append(' ');

name = (String) names.nextElement();

if (name.indexOf(".") > 0) // contains a period, so
might be one or more initials
{
StringTokenizer initials = new
StringTokenizer(name, ".");

while (initials.hasMoreElements())
{
name = (String)
initials.nextElement();
out.append(convertProperName(name));
out.append('.');
}
}
else
out.append(convertProperName(name));

moreNames = true;
}

return out.toString();
}

/**
* This method actually does the proper name conversion.
*
* It is private because it assumes that:
* - the passed value is not null
* - the name has been converted to lower case
*
* It is used from:
* - properName
* - properNames
*
* @param theValue
* @return
*/
private static String convertProperName(String theValue)
{
char charArray[] = theValue.toCharArray();
StringBuffer out = new StringBuffer(theValue.length() + 1);
int nextCapital;

// handle the special class of names such as:
// - McDonald
// - MacDonald
if (theValue.startsWith("mc"))
nextCapital = 2;
else if (theValue.startsWith("mac"))
nextCapital = 3;
else
nextCapital = -1; // no capital within name

for (int c = 0; c < charArray.length; c++)
if (c == 0 || c == nextCapital)

out.append(Character.toUpperCase(charArray[c]));
else
out.append(charArray[c]);

return out.toString();
}