Python: Modify Part of a String

Question

I am taking an input string that is all one continuous group of letters and splitting it into a sentence. The problem is that as a beginner I can't figure out how to modify the string to ONLY capitalize the first letter and convert the others to lowercase. I know the string.lower but that converts everything to lowercase. Any ideas?

 # This program asks user for a string run together
 # with each word capitalized and gives back the words
 # separated and only the first word capitalized
 import re
 def main():
      # ask the user for a string
      string = input( 'Enter some words each one capitalized, run together without spaces ')
      for ch in string:
         if ch.isupper() and not ch.islower():
            newstr = re.sub('[A-Z]',addspace,string)
      print(newstr)
 def addspace(m) :
      return ' ' + m.group(0)
 #call the main function
 main()

I expanded my answer to capitalize only the first word and lower case all other words. — sshashank124
– sshashank124, Commented Apr 6, 2014 at 3:45

Remo L. · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-06 03:59:36Z

4

You can use capitalize():

Return a copy of the string with its first character capitalized and the rest lowercased.

>>> s = "hello world"
>>> s.capitalize()
'Hello world'
>>> s = "hello World"
>>> s.capitalize()
'Hello world'
>>> s = "hELLO WORLD"
>>> s.capitalize()
'Hello world'

edited Apr 6, 2014 at 3:59

Remo L.

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answered Apr 6, 2014 at 3:20

alecxe

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2 Comments

Maggi3339336 Over a year ago

The first word in the string is already capitalized. I want all the other words in the string the be uncapitalized

alecxe Over a year ago

@Maggi3339336 then, you better still use capitalize() - it's clear and readable.

sshashank124 · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-06 03:41:38Z

0

Unrelated example. To capitalize only the first letter you can do:

>>> s = 'hello'
>>> s = s[0].upper()+s[1:]
>>> print s
Hello

>>> s = 'heLLO'
>>> s = s[0].upper()+s[1:]
>>> print s
HeLLO

For a whole string, you can do

>>> s = 'what is your name'
>>> print ' '.join(i[0].upper()+i[1:] for i in s.split())
What Is Your Name

[EDIT]

You can also do:

>>> s = 'Hello What Is Your Name'
>>> s = ''.join(j.lower() if i>0 else j for i,j in enumerate(s))
>>> print s
Hello what is your name

edited Apr 6, 2014 at 3:41

answered Apr 6, 2014 at 3:20

sshashank124

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3 Comments

James Sapam Over a year ago

why you don't use just str.capitalize() ?

sshashank124 Over a year ago

@sjcipher, Because alecxe did that. It is better we provide a range of options to choose from rather than all putting the same best answer.

James Sapam Over a year ago

ok thank you, its good to know all those option. appreciate that.

dr jimbob · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-06 03:53:32Z

If you only want to capitalize the start of sentences (and your string has multiple sentences), you can do something like:

>>> sentences = "this is sentence one. this is sentence two. and SENTENCE three."
>>> split_sentences = sentences.split('.')
>>> '. '.join([s.strip().capitalize() for s in split_sentences])
'This is sentence one. This is sentence two. And sentence three.  '

If you don't want to change the case of the letters that don't start the sentence, then you can define your own capitalize function:

>>> def my_capitalize(s):
        if s:     # check that s is not ''
            return s[0].upper() + s[1:]
        return s

and then:

>>> '. '.join([my_capitalize(s.strip()) for s in split_sentences])
'This is sentence one. This is sentence two. And SENTENCE three. '

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