T-Sql function to convert a varchar - in this instance someone's name - from upper to title case?

Question

Does anyone have in their back pocket a function that can achieve this?

Answer 1

Found this here :-

create function ProperCase(@Text as varchar(8000))
returns varchar(8000)
as
begin
   declare @Reset bit;
   declare @Ret varchar(8000);
   declare @i int;
   declare @c char(1);

   select @Reset = 1, @i=1, @Ret = '';

   while (@i <= len(@Text))
    select @c= substring(@Text,@i,1),
               @Ret = @Ret + case when @Reset=1 then UPPER(@c) else LOWER(@c) end,
               @Reset = case when @c like '[a-zA-Z]' then 0 else 1 end,
               @i = @i +1
   return @Ret
end

Results from this:-

select dbo.propercase('ALL UPPERCASE');  -- All Uppercase
select dbo.propercase('MiXeD CaSe'); -- Mixed Case
select dbo.propercase('lower case'); -- Lower Case
select dbo.propercase('names with apostrophe - mr o''reilly  '); -- Names With Apostrophe - Mr O'Reilly
select dbo.propercase('names with hyphen - mary two-barrels  '); -- Names With Hyphen - Mary Two-Barrels

Answer 2

I'd do this outside of TSQL, in the calling code tbh. e.g. if you're using .NET, it's just a case of using TextInfo.ToTitleCase.

That way, you leave your formatting code outside of TSQL (standard "let the caller decide how to use/format the data" approach).