note 60064 added to function.ucwords

"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" ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ucwords.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+60064 Delete: added to the manual -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+60064&report=yes&reason=added+to+the+manual Delete: bad code -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+60064&report=yes&reason=bad+code Delete: spam -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+60064&report=yes&reason=spam Delete: useless -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+60064&report=yes&reason=useless Delete: non-english -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+60064&report=yes&reason=non-english Delete: already in docs -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+60064&report=yes&reason=already+in+docs Delete: other reasons -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+60064&report=yes Reject -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+60064&report=yes Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php