Cookbooks
C
Chapter 2. Strings
Capitalizing a string

C:
Capitalizing a string

How to:

Capitalizing a string in C requires a basic understanding of character manipulation and string traversal. Since C does not have a built-in function for this, you will typically check each character, adjusting its case as necessary. Below is a simple implementation:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h> // For islower and toupper functions

void capitalizeString(char *str) {
    if (str == NULL) return; // Safety check
    
    int capNext = 1; // Flag to indicate whether to capitalize the next letter
    for (int i = 0; str[i] != '\0'; i++) {
        if (capNext && islower(str[i])) {
            str[i] = toupper(str[i]); // Capitalize character
            capNext = 0; // Reset flag
        } else if (str[i] == ' ') {
            capNext = 1; // Next character should be capitalized
        }
    }
}

int main() {
    char exampleString[] = "hello world. programming in c!";
    capitalizeString(exampleString);
    printf("Capitalized string: %s\n", exampleString);
    return 0;
}

Sample Output:

Capitalized string: Hello World. Programming In C!

This program traverses the string exampleString, checking each character if it should be capitalized. The islower function checks if a character is a lowercase letter, while toupper converts it to uppercase. The flag capNext determines whether the next letter encountered should be converted, being set after each space (’ ‘) is found, and initially to capitalize the string’s first character.

Deep Dive

The technique demonstrated is straightforward but lacks efficiency for very large strings or when executed repeatedly in performance-critical applications. In historical and implementation contexts, string manipulation in C, including capitalization, often involves direct buffer manipulation, reflecting C’s low-level approach and giving the programmer full control over memory and performance trade-offs.

There are alternative, more sophisticated methods for capitalizing strings, especially when considering locales and unicode characters, where capitalization rules can differ significantly from the simple ASCII scenario. Libraries such as ICU (International Components for Unicode) provide robust solutions for these cases but introduce dependencies and overhead that might not be necessary for all applications.

Furthermore, while the example provided uses the C Standard Library functions islower and toupper, which are part of <ctype.h>, it’s essential to understand these work within the ASCII range. For applications demanding processing of characters beyond ASCII, such as handling accented characters in European languages, additional logic or third-party libraries will be necessary to accurately perform capitalization.

In conclusion, while the method outlined is suitable for many applications, understanding its limitations and the alternatives available is crucial for developing robust, internationalized software in C.

Concatenating strings