CFLib.org – CapFirstTitle

CapFirstTitle(initText)

Last updated July 27, 2001

author

Version: 2 | Requires: ColdFusion 5 | Library: StrLib

Rated 8 time(s). Average Rating: 3.9

Description:
Takes a string and returns it capitalized for a title. Always capitalizes first and last words and hyphenated words. Leaves some prepositions and conjunctions lower case.

Return Values:
Returns a string.

Example:

<CFSET str="once upon a time in the west">
<CFOUTPUT>
Given str=#str#<BR>
The CapFirstTitle version is #CapFirstTitle(str)#
</CFOUTPUT>

Parameters:

Name	Description	Required
initText	String to be modified.	Yes

Full UDF Source:

	
	<cfscript>
/**
 * Returns a string with words capitalized for a title.
 * Modified by Ray Camden to include var statements.
 * 
 * @param initText      String to be modified. 
 * @return Returns a string. 
 * @author Ed Hodder (ed.hodder@bowne.com) 
 * @version 2, July 27, 2001 
 */
function capFirstTitle(initText){
    
    var Words = "";
    var j = 1; var m = 1;
    var doCap = "";
    var thisWord = "";
    var excludeWords = ArrayNew(1);
    var outputString = "";
    
    initText = LCASE(initText);
    
    //Words to never capitalize
    excludeWords[1] = "an";
    excludeWords[2] = "the";
    excludeWords[3] = "at";
    excludeWords[4] = "by";
    excludeWords[5] = "for";
    excludeWords[6] = "of";
    excludeWords[7] = "in";
    excludeWords[8] = "up";
    excludeWords[9] = "on";
    excludeWords[10] = "to";
    excludeWords[11] = "and";
    excludeWords[12] = "as";
    excludeWords[13] = "but";
    excludeWords[14] = "if";
    excludeWords[15] = "or";
    excludeWords[16] = "nor";
    excludeWords[17] = "a";
    
    //Make each word in text an array variable
        
    Words = ListToArray(initText, " ");
    
    //Check words against exclude list
    for(j=1; j LTE (ArrayLen(Words)); j = j+1){
        doCap = true;
        
        //Word must be less that four characters to be in the list of excluded words
        if(LEN(Words[j]) LT 4 ){
            if(ListFind(ArrayToList(excludeWords,","),Words[j])){
                doCap = false;
            }
        }

        //Capitalize hyphenated words        
        if(ListLen(Words[j],"-") GT 1){
            for(m=2; m LTE ListLen(Words[j], "-"); m=m+1){
                thisWord = ListGetAt(Words[j], m, "-");
                thisWord = UCase(Mid(thisWord,1, 1)) & Mid(thisWord,2, LEN(thisWord)-1);
                Words[j] = ListSetAt(Words[j], m, thisWord, "-");
            }
        }
        
        //Automatically capitalize first and last words
        if(j eq 1 or j eq ArrayLen(Words)){
            doCap = true;
        }
        
        //Capitalize qualifying words
        if(doCap){
            Words[j] = UCase(Mid(Words[j],1, 1)) & Mid(Words[j],2, LEN(Words[j])-1);
        }
    }
    
    outputString = ArrayToList(Words, " ");

    return outputString;

}
</cfscript>