Oracle INITCAP Function

The Oracle INITCAP() function converts the first letter of each word to uppercase and other letters to lowercase.

By definition, words are sequences of alphanumeric characters delimited by a space or any other non-alphanumeric letter.

Syntax

The following illustrates the syntax of the INITCAP() function:

INITCAP(string)
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Arguments

The Oracle INITCAP() function takes one argument:

1)string

is the string that should be converted to the proper case

Return value

The INITCAP() function returns a string in the proper case or title case.

Examples

The following statement uses the INITCAP() function to convert a string to the proper case:

SELECT
  INITCAP( 'hi john' )
FROM
  DUAL;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The result is as follows:

Hi John
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

We often use the INITCAP() function to fix the data e.g., name, email, etc. that has all caps or has mixed case.

See the following contacts table in the sample database.

The following statement selects the first name and last name from the contacts table. In addition, it constructs the full name and converts it to the proper case using the INITCAP() function.

SELECT
  INITCAP( first_name || ' ' || last_name ) full_name
FROM
  contacts
ORDER BY
  full_name;  
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The following picture illustrates the result.

Remarks

If you want to convert a string to uppercase, you use the UPPER() function. In case you want to convert a string to lowercase, you use the LOWER() function.

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the Oracle INITCAP() function to convert a string to a proper case.

Was this tutorial helpful?