Best way to convert Pascal Case to a sentence
C#StringC# Problem Overview
What is the best way to convert from Pascal Case (upper Camel Case) to a sentence.
For example starting with
"AwaitingFeedback"
and converting that to
"Awaiting feedback"
C# preferable but I could convert it from Java or similar.
C# Solutions
Solution 1 - C#
public static string ToSentenceCase(this string str)
{
return Regex.Replace(str, "[a-z][A-Z]", m => m.Value[0] + " " + char.ToLower(m.Value[1]));
}
In versions of visual studio after 2015, you can do
public static string ToSentenceCase(this string str)
{
return Regex.Replace(str, "[a-z][A-Z]", m => $"{m.Value[0]} {char.ToLower(m.Value[1])}");
}
Based on: Converting Pascal case to sentences using regular expression
Solution 2 - C#
I will prefer to use Humanizer for this. Humanizer is a Portable Class Library that meets all your .NET needs for manipulating and displaying strings, enums, dates, times, timespans, numbers and quantities.
Short Answer
"AwaitingFeedback".Humanize() => Awaiting feedback
Long and Descriptive Answer
Humanizer can do a lot more work other examples are:
"PascalCaseInputStringIsTurnedIntoSentence".Humanize() => "Pascal case input string is turned into sentence"
"Underscored_input_string_is_turned_into_sentence".Humanize() => "Underscored input string is turned into sentence"
"Can_return_title_Case".Humanize(LetterCasing.Title) => "Can Return Title Case"
"CanReturnLowerCase".Humanize(LetterCasing.LowerCase) => "can return lower case"
Complete code is :
using Humanizer;
using static System.Console;
namespace HumanizerConsoleApp
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
WriteLine("AwaitingFeedback".Humanize());
WriteLine("PascalCaseInputStringIsTurnedIntoSentence".Humanize());
WriteLine("Underscored_input_string_is_turned_into_sentence".Humanize());
WriteLine("Can_return_title_Case".Humanize(LetterCasing.Title));
WriteLine("CanReturnLowerCase".Humanize(LetterCasing.LowerCase));
}
}
}
Output
> Awaiting feedback > >Pascal case input string is turned into sentence > > Underscored input string is turned into sentence Can Return Title Case > > can return lower case
If you prefer to write your own C# code you can achieve this by writing some C# code stuff as answered by others already.
Solution 3 - C#
Here you go...
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace CamelCaseToString
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine(CamelCaseToString("ThisIsYourMasterCallingYou"));
}
private static string CamelCaseToString(string str)
{
if (str == null || str.Length == 0)
return null;
StringBuilder retVal = new StringBuilder(32);
retVal.Append(char.ToUpper(str[0]));
for (int i = 1; i < str.Length; i++ )
{
if (char.IsLower(str[i]))
{
retVal.Append(str[i]);
}
else
{
retVal.Append(" ");
retVal.Append(char.ToLower(str[i]));
}
}
return retVal.ToString();
}
}
}
Solution 4 - C#
This works for me:
Regex.Replace(strIn, "([A-Z]{1,2}|[0-9]+)", " $1").TrimStart()
Solution 5 - C#
This is just like @SSTA, but is more efficient than calling TrimStart.
Regex.Replace("ThisIsMyCapsDelimitedString", "(\\B[A-Z])", " $1")
Solution 6 - C#
Found this in the MvcContrib source, doesn't seem to be mentioned here yet.
return Regex.Replace(input, "([A-Z])", " $1", RegexOptions.Compiled).Trim();
Solution 7 - C#
Here's a basic way of doing it that I came up with using Regex
public static string CamelCaseToSentence(this string value)
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
var firstWord = true;
foreach (var match in Regex.Matches(value, "([A-Z][a-z]+)|[0-9]+"))
{
if (firstWord)
{
sb.Append(match.ToString());
firstWord = false;
}
else
{
sb.Append(" ");
sb.Append(match.ToString().ToLower());
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
It will also split off numbers which I didn't specify but would be useful.
Solution 8 - C#
Just because everyone has been using Regex (except this guy), here's an implementation with StringBuilder
that was about 5x faster in my tests. Includes checking for numbers too.
"SomeBunchOfCamelCase2".FromCamelCaseToSentence == "Some Bunch Of Camel Case 2"
public static string FromCamelCaseToSentence(this string input) {
if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(input)) return input;
var sb = new StringBuilder();
// start with the first character -- consistent camelcase and pascal case
sb.Append(char.ToUpper(input[0]));
// march through the rest of it
for(var i = 1; i < input.Length; i++) {
// any time we hit an uppercase OR number, it's a new word
if(char.IsUpper(input[i]) || char.IsDigit(input[i])) sb.Append(' ');
// add regularly
sb.Append(input[i]);
}
return sb.ToString();
}
Solution 9 - C#
string camel = "MyCamelCaseString";
string s = Regex.Replace(camel, "([A-Z])", " $1").ToLower().Trim();
Console.WriteLine(s.Substring(0,1).ToUpper() + s.Substring(1));
Edit: didn't notice your casing requirements, modifed accordingly. You could use a matchevaluator to do the casing, but I think a substring is easier. You could also wrap it in a 2nd regex replace where you change the first character
"^\w"
to upper
\U (i think)
Solution 10 - C#
I'd use a regex, inserting a space before each upper case character, then lowering all the string.
string spacedString = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(yourString, "\B([A-Z])", " \k");
spacedString = spacedString.ToLower();
Solution 11 - C#
It is easy to do in JavaScript (or PHP, etc.) where you can define a function in the replace call:
var camel = "AwaitingFeedbackDearMaster";
var sentence = camel.replace(/([A-Z].)/g, function (c) { return ' ' + c.toLowerCase(); });
alert(sentence);
Although I haven't solved the initial cap problem... :-)
Now, for the Java solution:
String ToSentence(String camel)
{
if (camel == null) return ""; // Or null...
String[] words = camel.split("(?=[A-Z])");
if (words == null) return "";
if (words.length == 1) return words[0];
StringBuilder sentence = new StringBuilder(camel.length());
if (words[0].length() > 0) // Just in case of camelCase instead of CamelCase
{
sentence.append(words[0] + " " + words[1].toLowerCase());
}
else
{
sentence.append(words[1]);
}
for (int i = 2; i < words.length; i++)
{
sentence.append(" " + words[i].toLowerCase());
}
return sentence.toString();
}
System.out.println(ToSentence("AwaitingAFeedbackDearMaster"));
System.out.println(ToSentence(null));
System.out.println(ToSentence(""));
System.out.println(ToSentence("A"));
System.out.println(ToSentence("Aaagh!"));
System.out.println(ToSentence("stackoverflow"));
System.out.println(ToSentence("disableGPS"));
System.out.println(ToSentence("Ahh89Boo"));
System.out.println(ToSentence("ABC"));
Note the trick to split the sentence without loosing any character...
Solution 12 - C#
Pseudo-code:
NewString = "";
Loop through every char of the string (skip the first one)
If char is upper-case ('A'-'Z')
NewString = NewString + ' ' + lowercase(char)
Else
NewString = NewString + char
Better ways can perhaps be done by using regex or by string replacement routines (replace 'X' with ' x')
Solution 13 - C#
An xquery solution that works for both UpperCamel and lowerCamel case:
To output sentence case (only the first character of the first word is capitalized):
declare function content:sentenceCase($string)
{
let $firstCharacter := substring($string, 1, 1)
let $remainingCharacters := substring-after($string, $firstCharacter)
return
concat(upper-case($firstCharacter),lower-case(replace($remainingCharacters, '([A-Z])', ' $1')))
};
To output title case (first character of each word capitalized):
declare function content:titleCase($string)
{
let $firstCharacter := substring($string, 1, 1)
let $remainingCharacters := substring-after($string, $firstCharacter)
return
concat(upper-case($firstCharacter),replace($remainingCharacters, '([A-Z])', ' $1'))
};
Solution 14 - C#
Found myself doing something similar, and I appreciate having a point-of-departure with this discussion. This is my solution, placed as an extension method to the string class in the context of a console application.
using System;
using System.Text;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string piratese = "avastTharMatey";
string ivyese = "CheerioPipPip";
Console.WriteLine("{0}\n{1}\n", piratese.CamelCaseToString(), ivyese.CamelCaseToString());
Console.WriteLine("For Pete\'s sake, man, hit ENTER!");
string strExit = Console.ReadLine();
}
}
public static class StringExtension
{
public static string CamelCaseToString(this string str)
{
StringBuilder retVal = new StringBuilder(32);
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(str))
{
string strTrimmed = str.Trim();
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(strTrimmed))
{
retVal.Append(char.ToUpper(strTrimmed[0]));
if (strTrimmed.Length > 1)
{
for (int i = 1; i < strTrimmed.Length; i++)
{
if (char.IsUpper(strTrimmed[i])) retVal.Append(" ");
retVal.Append(char.ToLower(strTrimmed[i]));
}
}
}
}
return retVal.ToString();
}
}
}
Solution 15 - C#
Most of the preceding answers split acronyms and numbers, adding a space in front of each character. I wanted acronyms and numbers to be kept together so I have a simple state machine that emits a space every time the input transitions from one state to the other.
/// <summary>
/// Add a space before any capitalized letter (but not for a run of capitals or numbers)
/// </summary>
internal static string FromCamelCaseToSentence(string input)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(input)) return String.Empty;
var sb = new StringBuilder();
bool upper = true;
for (var i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
{
bool isUpperOrDigit = char.IsUpper(input[i]) || char.IsDigit(input[i]);
// any time we transition to upper or digits, it's a new word
if (!upper && isUpperOrDigit)
{
sb.Append(' ');
}
sb.Append(input[i]);
upper = isUpperOrDigit;
}
return sb.ToString();
}
And here's some tests:
[TestCase(null, ExpectedResult = "")]
[TestCase("", ExpectedResult = "")]
[TestCase("ABC", ExpectedResult = "ABC")]
[TestCase("abc", ExpectedResult = "abc")]
[TestCase("camelCase", ExpectedResult = "camel Case")]
[TestCase("PascalCase", ExpectedResult = "Pascal Case")]
[TestCase("Pascal123", ExpectedResult = "Pascal 123")]
[TestCase("CustomerID", ExpectedResult = "Customer ID")]
[TestCase("CustomABC123", ExpectedResult = "Custom ABC123")]
public string CanSplitCamelCase(string input)
{
return FromCamelCaseToSentence(input);
}
Solution 16 - C#
Mostly already answered here
Small chage to the accepted answer, to convert the second and subsequent Capitalised letters to lower case, so change
if (char.IsUpper(text[i]))
newText.Append(' ');
newText.Append(text[i]);
to
if (char.IsUpper(text[i]))
{
newText.Append(' ');
newText.Append(char.ToLower(text[i]));
}
else
newText.Append(text[i]);
Solution 17 - C#
Here is my implementation. This is the fastest that I got while avoiding creating spaces for abbreviations.
public static string PascalCaseToSentence(string input)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(input) || input.Length < 2)
return input;
var sb = new char[input.Length + ((input.Length + 1) / 2)];
var len = 0;
var lastIsLower = false;
for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
{
var current = input[i];
if (current < 97)
{
if (lastIsLower)
{
sb[len] = ' ';
len++;
}
lastIsLower = false;
}
else
{
lastIsLower = true;
}
sb[len] = current;
len++;
}
return new string(sb, 0, len);
}