Visual Basic for Applications:
Capitalizing a string

How to:

VBA doesn’t have a built-in function specifically for capitalizing each word in a string, like some other programming languages do. However, you can achieve this by combining a few methods and functions like UCase, LCase, and Mid.

Here’s a straightforward example on how to capitalize a string:

Function CapitalizeString(inputString As String) As String
    Dim words As Variant
    words = Split(inputString, " ")
    For i = LBound(words) To UBound(words)
        If Len(words(i)) > 0 Then
            words(i) = UCase(Left(words(i), 1)) & LCase(Mid(words(i), 2))
        End If
    Next i
    CapitalizeString = Join(words, " ")
End Function

Sub ExampleUsage()
    Dim exampleString As String
    exampleString = "hello world from VBA!"
    MsgBox CapitalizeString(exampleString) 'Output: "Hello World From Vba!"
End Sub

The CapitalizeString function splits the input string into words, capitalizes the first letter of each word, and finally joins them back together to form the properly capitalized string.

Deep Dive

Visual Basic for Applications, emerging in the early ’90s as a macro language for Microsoft Office applications, was designed to offer an accessible programming model. Its string manipulation capabilities, while extensive, lack some higher-level abstractions found in newer languages. Many modern programming environments provide a dedicated method for string capitalization, often termed as title casing or similar. Python, for instance, includes the .title() method for strings.

When comparing, the absence of a single, built-in function in VBA to capitalize string words might seem like a drawback. However, this offers programmers a deeper understanding and control over how they manipulate text and accommodate nuances not strictly adhered to by a generic method. For instance, handling acronyms or special cases where certain smaller words in titles shouldn’t be capitalized can be better customized in VBA through explicit functions.

Furthermore, while direct approaches exist in VBA for changing the case of a string (LCase and UCase), the manual route for capitalizing individual words within a string emphasizes the nuanced control VBA grants to developers. This is particularly important in applications like database management, form inputs, and document editing where text manipulation is frequent but varied in requirements.

Nevertheless, for applications where text processing demands are high and diverse, languages with built-in string manipulation libraries might offer a more efficient route. It’s in these scenarios that integrating or complementing VBA with other programming resources, or choosing another language altogether, could prove advantageous.