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This UDF is intended to improve on the existing _StringProper UDF by using the magic of regular expressions (don't worry, it protects the user from having to know anything about RegEx). In addition to avoiding some of the anomalies associated with _StringProper (such as a cap following each apostrophe--Susan'S Farm), it provides additional functionality: Sentence Case: Only the first word of each sentence (following a period, question mark, exclamation point or colon) is capitalized.Title Case: Initial caps for all words except articles (a, the) and some common conjunctions (and, but) and prepositions (in, on). While the actual rules for capitalizing authored works would require hundreds of lines of code and still not be perfect, this will suffice for most uses.Capitalization Exceptions: Permits user selectable exceptions to the default scheme. Mac (as in MacDonald), Mc, and O' are the defaults, but users can pass their own exceptions in an easy-to-use function parameter.I've chosen not to use the term "Proper Case" in the function at all, because a) there are varying opinions about what it means, b ) my equivalent (termed "Initial Caps") works somewhat differently (i.e. better ), and c) "Proper Case" as used in other applications (e.g. Excel) works (or doesn't work) the same as _StringProper in AutoIt. I'm posting _StringChooseCase here in hopes of getting some feedback and squashing any bugs I've missed prior to submitting it as a candidate for inclusion as a standard AutoIt UDF. UPDATE (3 Jan 2013): I removed the hack noted below using a more bullet-proof method of marking capitalization exceptions, inspired by dany's _StringRegExpSplit function. Also added the colon character as sentence punctuation, and added II, III & IV as default cap exceptions. UPDATE (9 Jan 2013): The code is a hair more efficient. #include-once and #include <array.au3> now appear where they're supposed to. "I" is now always capitalized (both as the first person pronoun and the Roman numeral one). Title Case further improved: It now has a more comprehensive list of lower-case words--mainly more prepositions--and the last word of a title will always be capitalized. #include-once #include <Array.au3> ;_ArrayToString UDF used in Return ; #FUNCTION# ==================================================================================================================== ; Name...........: _StringChooseCase ; Description ...: Returns a string in the selected upper & lower case format: Initial Caps, Title Case, or Sentence Case ; Syntax.........: _StringChooseCase($sMixed, $iOption[, $sCapExcepts = "Mc^|Mac^|O'^|II|III|IV"]) ;PROSPECTIVE: add param for Ignore mixed case input ; Parameters ....: $sMixed - String to change capitalization of. ; $iOption - 1: Initial Caps: Capitalize Every Word; ; 2: Title Case: Use Standard Rules for the Capitalization of Work Titles; ; 3: Sentence Case: Capitalize as in a sentence. ; $sCapExcepts - [optional] Exceptions to capitalizing set by options, delimited by | character. Use the ^ ; character to cause the next input character (whatever it is) to be capitalized ; Return values .: Success - Returns the same string, capitalized as selected. ; Failure - "" ; Author ........: Tim Curran <tim at timcurran dot com> ; Remarks .......: Option 1 is similar to standard UDF _StringProper, but avoids anomalies like capital following an apostrophe ; Related .......: _StringProper, StringUpper, StringLower ; Link ..........: ; Example .......: Yes ; =============================================================================================================================== Func _StringChooseCase(ByRef $sMixed, $iOption, $sCapExcepts = "Mc^|Mac^|O'^|I|II|III|IV") Local $asSegments, $sTrimtoAlpha, $iCapPos = 1 $sMixed = StringLower($sMixed) Switch $iOption Case 1 ;Initial Caps $asSegments = StringRegExp($sMixed, ".*?(?:\s|\Z)", 3) ;break by word Case 2 ;Title Case $asSegments = StringRegExp($sMixed, ".*?(?:\s|\Z)", 3) ;break by word Case 3 ;Sentence Case $asSegments = StringRegExp($sMixed, ".*?(?:\.\W*|\?\W*|\!\W*|\:\W*|\Z)", 3) ;break by sentence EndSwitch Local $iLastWord = UBound($asSegments) - 2 For $iIndex = 0 to $iLastWord ;Capitalize the first letter of each element in array $sTrimtoAlpha = StringRegExp($asSegments[$iIndex], "\w.*", 1) If @error = 0 Then $iCapPos = StringInStr($asSegments[$iIndex], $sTrimtoAlpha[0]) If $iOption <> 2 Or $iIndex = 0 Then ;Follow non-cap rules for Title Case if option selected (including cap last word) $asSegments[$iIndex] = StringReplace($asSegments[$iIndex], $iCapPos, StringUpper(StringMid($asSegments[$iIndex], $iCapPos, 1))) ElseIf $iIndex = $iLastWord Or StringRegExp($asSegments[$iIndex], "\band\b|\bthe\b|\ba\b|\ban\b|\bbut\b|\bfor\b|\bor\b|\bin\b|\bon\b|\bfrom\b|\bto\b|\bby\b|\bover\b|\bof\b|\bto\b|\bwith\b|\bas\b|\bat\b", 0) = 0 Then $asSegments[$iIndex] = StringReplace($asSegments[$iIndex], $iCapPos, StringUpper(StringMid($asSegments[$iIndex], $iCapPos, 1))) EndIf ;Capitalization exceptions $asSegments[$iIndex] = _CapExcept($asSegments[$iIndex], $sCapExcepts) Next Return _ArrayToString($asSegments, "") EndFunc ;==> _StringChooseCase Func _CapExcept($sSource, $sExceptions) Local $sRegExaExcept, $iMakeUCPos Local $avExcept = StringSplit($sExceptions, "|") For $iIndex = 1 to $avExcept[0] $sRegExaExcept = "(?i)\b" & $avExcept[$iIndex] $iMakeUCPos = StringInStr($avExcept[$iIndex], "^") If $iMakeUCPos <> 0 Then $sRegExaExcept = StringReplace($sRegExaExcept, "^", "") Else $sRegExaExcept &= "\b" EndIf $avExcept[$iIndex] = StringReplace($avExcept[$iIndex], "^", "") ;remove ^ from replacement text $sSource = StringRegExpReplace($sSource, $sRegExaExcept, $avExcept[$iIndex]) If $iMakeUCPos <> 0 Then Local $iNextUC = _StringRegExpPos($sSource, $sRegExaExcept) Local $iMatches = @extended Local $iCapThis = $iNextUC + $iMakeUCPos For $x = 1 to $iMatches $sSource = StringLeft($sSource, $iCapThis - 2) & StringUpper(StringMid($sSource, $iCapThis - 1, 1)) & StringMid($sSource, $iCapThis) Next EndIf Next Return $sSource EndFunc ;==> _CapExcept Func _StringRegExpPos($sTest, $sPattern, $iOcc = 1, $iStart = 1) Local $sDelim, $iHits If $iStart > StringLen($sTest) Then Return SetError(1) ;Delimiter creation snippet by dany from his version of _StringRegExpSplit For $i = 1 To 31 $sDelim &= Chr($i) If Not StringInStr($sTest, $sDelim) Then ExitLoop If 32 = StringLen($sDelim) Then Return SetError(3, 0, 0) Next Local $aResults = StringRegExpReplace(StringMid($sTest, $iStart + (StringLen($sDelim) * ($iOcc - 1))), "(" & $sPattern & ")", $sDelim & "$1") If @error = 2 Then Return SetError(2, @extended, 0) $iHits = @extended If $iHits = 0 Then Return 0 If $iOcc > $iHits Then Return SetError(1) Local $iPos = StringInStr($aResults, $sDelim, 0, $iOcc) SetExtended($iHits) Return $iStart - 1 + $iPos EndFunc ;<== _StringRegExpPos Here's a bit of sample code: EDIT (16 Jan 2013): Corrected format of #include to use quotation marks instead of angle brackets. #Include "_StringChooseCase.au3" Global $test = "'abcdefghi now it's 'the time for all good men.' 'AND TWELVE MORE MACDONALD'S!'" & @CRLF & "The quick brown fox JUMPED over the lazy MacDonalds. The USA's Usain Bolt ran for the USA." ConsoleWrite(_StringChooseCase($test, 1, "Mc^|Mac^|O'^|USA|FBI|Barack|Obama") & @CRLF) ConsoleWrite(_StringChooseCase('"and the band played on"', 2) & @CRLF) Previous downloads: 18 _StringChooseCase.au3