Capitalize first letter of each word, in existing table

I have an existing table 'people_table', with a field full_name.

Many records have the 'full_name' field populated with incorrect casing. e.g. 'fred Jones' or 'fred jones' or 'Fred jones'.

I can find these errant entries with:

SELECT * FROM people_table WHERE full_name REGEXP BINARY '^[a-z]';

How can I capitalize the first letter of each word found? e.g. 'fred jones' becomes 'Fred Jones'.

There's no MySQL function to do that, you have to write your own. In the following link there's an implementation:

http://joezack.com/index.php/2008/10/20/mysql-capitalize-function/

In order to use it, first you need to create the function in the database. You can do this, for example, using MySQL Query Browser (right-click the database name and select Create new Function).

After creating the function, you can update the values in the table with a query like this:

UPDATE users SET name = CAP_FIRST(name);

If you need to run it just one time, and you don't want to create a function, you can do something really-harcoded as:

UPDATE people_table SET full_name = LOWER(full_name);
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = CONCAT(UPPER(SUBSTR(full_name,1,1)),LOWER(SUBSTR(full_name,2)));
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' a',' A');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' b',' B');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' c',' C');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' d',' D');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' e',' E');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' f',' F');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' g',' G');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' h',' H');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' i',' I');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' j',' J');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' k',' K');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' l',' L');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' m',' M');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' n',' N');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' o',' O');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' p',' P');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' q',' Q');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' r',' R');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' s',' S');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' t',' T');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' u',' U');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' v',' V');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' w',' W');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' x',' X');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' y',' Y');
UPDATE people_table SET full_name = REPLACE(full_name,' z',' Z');

If you want to capitalize all words, it will be needed to invoke a custom function.

-- may help:
-- DROP function if exists capitalize;

DELIMITER $$
CREATE FUNCTION `capitalize`(s varchar(255)) RETURNS varchar(255) 
BEGIN
  declare c int;
  declare x varchar(255);
  declare y varchar(255);
  declare z varchar(255);

  set x = UPPER( SUBSTRING( s, 1, 1));
  set y = SUBSTR( s, 2);
  set c = instr( y, ' ');

  while c > 0
    do
      set z = SUBSTR( y, 1, c);
      set x = CONCAT( x, z);
      set z = UPPER( SUBSTR( y, c+1, 1));
      set x = CONCAT( x, z);
      set y = SUBSTR( y, c+2);
      set c = INSTR( y, ' ');     
  end while;
  set x = CONCAT(x, y);
  return x;
END$$

DELIMITER ;

Now you do this way:

 UPDATE mytable SET thefield = capitalize(thefield);

Here are two useful functions by Nicholas Thompson. You can set the 3rd variable of UC_DELEMITER to false, and the second to " " for the capitalization of more than one word.

UC_FIRST Capitalize any given string - This function is a clone of the ucfirst function in PHP.

DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS UC_FIRST;
CREATE FUNCTION UC_FIRST(oldWord VARCHAR(255)) RETURNS VARCHAR(255)
RETURN CONCAT(UCASE(SUBSTRING(oldWord, 1, 1)),SUBSTRING(oldWord, 2));

UC_DELIMITER Capitalize with a delimiter in between words

DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS UC_DELIMITER;
DELIMITER //
CREATE FUNCTION UC_DELIMITER(
   oldName VARCHAR(255), delim VARCHAR(1), trimSpaces BOOL
) 
  RETURNS VARCHAR(255)
BEGIN
SET @oldString := oldName;
SET @newString := "";

tokenLoop: LOOP
    IF trimSpaces THEN SET @oldString := TRIM(BOTH " " FROM @oldString);          END IF;

SET @splitPoint := LOCATE(delim, @oldString);

IF @splitPoint = 0 THEN
  SET @newString := CONCAT(@newString, UC_FIRST(@oldString));
  LEAVE tokenLoop;
END IF;

   SET @newString := CONCAT(@newString, UC_FIRST(SUBSTRING(@oldString, 1, @splitPoint)));
   SET @oldString := SUBSTRING(@oldString, @splitPoint+1);
END LOOP tokenLoop;

RETURN @newString;
END//
DELIMITER ;

Examples:

SELECT UC_DELIMITER('eric-leroy','-',TRUE);
Eric-Leroy  

Function's Webpage

I tried the code from above but had syntax errors on function, so could not create it. Wrote this for latest version of MySQL if it helps anyone

CREATE FUNCTION  `CAP_FIRST`(input VARCHAR(255)) RETURNS varchar(255) CHARSET latin1
    DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
    DECLARE len INT;
    DECLARE i INT;
    DECLARE charnum INT;
    declare SortedName varchar(255);

    SET len   = CHAR_LENGTH(input);
    SET input = LOWER(input);
    SET i = 1;
    set charnum = 1;
    set SortedName = '';


    WHILE (i <= len) DO
        if charnum = 1 then
            set SortedName = concat(SortedName,upper(mid(input,i,1)));
            set charnum = charnum + 1;
        else
            if mid(input,i,1) = ' ' then
                set SortedName = concat(SortedName,' ');
                set charnum = 1;
            else
                set SortedName = concat(SortedName,mid(input,i,1));
                set charnum = charnum + 1;
            end if;

        end if;


        SET i = i + 1;
    END WHILE;

    RETURN SortedName;
END