Title Case

[columb]

I have a cript which creates Unix users. The problem is that the source data can be in any state and I want to change the gecos (real name) to title case. i.e. whether the input is FRED BLOGS, fred blogs or Fred Blogs it should end up as Fred Blogs

So far I've got

  my @bits;
  foreach ( split / /, $gecos )
    { push @bits, ucfirst ( lc ( $_ ) ); }
  $gecos =  join ' ', @bits;
  print "$gecos\n";

which works but it's not very pretty and there must be a better way using regex. Sommething along the line of

$gecos = lc $gecos;
$gecos =~ s/\s(\w)/uc($1)/g;

but that doesn't do what I thought it would (and, of course, misses out the first name) Any pointers please?

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Columb Healy

 

[columb]

Cracked it - it's amazing how posting on TecTips stimulates the brain!
The answer is

$gecos =~ s/(\w+)/ucfirst(lc($1))/ge;

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Columb Healy

 

[stevexff]

Neat solution, Columb. But with all such mechanised solutions, there are always people whose names don't fit the pattern. McLean, O'Brien, de Cozar, etc. etc.

Steve

[small]"Every program can be reduced by one instruction, and every program has at least one bug. Therefore, any program can be reduced to one instruction which doesn't work." (Object:erlDesignPatterns)[/small]

 

[ishnid]

You're right steve, although it does actually correctly handle "O'Brien".

 

[columb]

Thanks for the tip Steve
Because the office I'm working for is in Glasgow I've amended it to

$gecos =~ s/(\w+)/ucfirst(lc($1))/ge;
$gecos =~ s/\bMc(\w)/"Mc". uc ($1)/e;
$gecos =~ s/\bMac(\w)/"Mac". uc ($1)/e;

As ishnid says, the 'O'Brians' will work and we don't get too many 'de Cozars'

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Columb Healy

 

[stevexff]

Yes, I suppose you are bound to have a higher than normal proportion of Mc... and Mac... in Glasgow!

Steve

[small]"Every program can be reduced by one instruction, and every program has at least one bug. Therefore, any program can be reduced to one instruction which doesn't work." (Object:erlDesignPatterns)[/small]

 

[MillerH]

If you're just trying to apply name casing, I suggest that you use the cpan module: NameCase.

- Miller

 

[columb]

Wow, Miller, just when I'd got it working! The lesson here is search CPAN first.

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Columb Healy