Question

What’s the best way to capitalise the first letter of each word in a string in SQL Server.

Answer 1

From http://www.sql-server-helper.com/functions/initcap.aspx

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[InitCap] ( @InputString varchar(4000) ) 
RETURNS VARCHAR(4000)
AS
BEGIN

DECLARE @Index          INT
DECLARE @Char           CHAR(1)
DECLARE @PrevChar       CHAR(1)
DECLARE @OutputString   VARCHAR(255)

SET @OutputString = LOWER(@InputString)
SET @Index = 1

WHILE @Index <= LEN(@InputString)
BEGIN
    SET @Char     = SUBSTRING(@InputString, @Index, 1)
    SET @PrevChar = CASE WHEN @Index = 1 THEN ' '
                         ELSE SUBSTRING(@InputString, @Index - 1, 1)
                    END

    IF @PrevChar IN (' ', ';', ':', '!', '?', ',', '.', '_', '-', '/', '&', '''', '(')
    BEGIN
        IF @PrevChar != '''' OR UPPER(@Char) != 'S'
            SET @OutputString = STUFF(@OutputString, @Index, 1, UPPER(@Char))
    END

    SET @Index = @Index + 1
END

RETURN @OutputString

END
GO

There is a simpler/smaller one here (but doesn't work if any row doesn't have spaces, "Invalid length parameter passed to the RIGHT function."):

http://www.devx.com/tips/Tip/17608