Python String Titlecase

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the Python string title() method to convert a string to titlecase.

Introduction to the Python title() method

The titlecase is a capitalization style used for titles so that the first letter of each word is uppercase and the remaining letters are lowercase. For example:

Python Title Case TutorialCode language: PHP (php)

The rules for the titlecase, however, are not universally standardized.

To make titlecased version of a string, you use the string title() method. The title() returns a copy of a string in the titlecase.

The title() method converts the first character of each words to uppercase and the remaining characters in lowercase.

The following shows the syntax of the title() method:

str.title()Code language: CSS (css)

Python title() method example

The following example shows how to use the title() method to return the titlecased version of a string:

name = 'john doe'.title()
print(name)Code language: PHP (php)

Output:

John Doe

Python title() method limitation

The title() method defines a word as a group of consecutive letters.

This rule works in many contexts. However, it won’t work as you may expect if a string contains the apostrophes (‘) like contractions and possessives. For example:

s = "They're john's relatives.".title()
print(s)Code language: PHP (php)

Output:

They'Re John'S Relatives.Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

In this example, the string contains apostrophes (') that act as word boundaries. The title() method treats They're as two separate words.

To fix it, you need to define a function that uses a regular expression:

import re
def titlecase(s):
    return re.sub(
        r"[A-Za-z]+('[A-Za-z]+)?",
        lambda word: word.group(0).capitalize(),
        s)Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

And use the titlecase() function:

s = "They're john's relatives."
s = titlecase(s)
print(s)Code language: PHP (php)

Output:

They're John's Relatives.Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Now, it works as expected.

Summary

• Use the Python string title() method to returns the titlecased version of a string.