ProperCase Function

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ProperCase Function

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Dohsan SSCrazy Points: 2972 More actions · Answer 1

Some excellent work

DECLARE @TestVar VARCHAR(16);

DECLARE @StartTime DATETIME;

PRINT 'Old Method Scalar Function'

SELECT @StartTime = GETDATE();

SELECT@TestVar = Utility.f_ProperCase(PT.String)

FROM#ProperTest AS PT;

PRINT CAST(DATEDIFF(ms,@StartTime,GETDATE()) AS VARCHAR) + ' MilliSeconds';

PRINT 'Dohsan'

SELECT @StartTime = GETDATE();

SELECT@TestVar = CA1.ProperCaseString

FROM#ProperTest AS PT

CROSS

APPLYdbo.ProperCase(PT.String) AS CA1;

PRINT CAST(DATEDIFF(ms,@StartTime,GETDATE()) AS VARCHAR) + ' MilliSeconds';

PRINT 'Luis'

SELECT @StartTime = GETDATE();

SELECT@TestVar = CA1.ProperCased

FROM#ProperTest AS PT

CROSS

APPLYdbo.ProperCase1(PT.String) AS CA1;

PRINT CAST(DATEDIFF(ms,@StartTime,GETDATE()) AS VARCHAR) + ' MilliSeconds';

PRINT 'Dwain'

SELECT @StartTime = GETDATE();

SELECT@TestVar = CA1.ProperCaseStr

FROM#ProperTest AS PT

CROSS

APPLYdbo.ProperCase2(PT.String) AS CA1;

PRINT CAST(DATEDIFF(ms,@StartTime,GETDATE()) AS VARCHAR) + ' MilliSeconds';

PRINT 'Magoo varchar255'

SELECT @StartTime = GETDATE();

SELECT@TestVar = CA1.[text]

FROM#ProperTest AS PT

CROSS

APPLYdbo.ProperCase3(PT.String) AS CA1;

PRINT CAST(DATEDIFF(ms,@StartTime,GETDATE()) AS VARCHAR) + ' MilliSeconds';

PRINT 'Luis V2'

SELECT @StartTime = GETDATE();

SELECT@TestVar = CA1.ProperCaseString

FROM#ProperTest AS PT

CROSS

APPLYdbo.ProperCase4(PT.String) AS CA1;

PRINT CAST(DATEDIFF(ms,@StartTime,GETDATE()) AS VARCHAR) + ' MilliSeconds';

Here as the results:

300k

Old Method Scalar Function

47306 MilliSeconds

Dohsan

19113 MilliSeconds

Luis

5946 MilliSeconds

Dwain

54486 MilliSeconds

Magoo varchar255

5440 MilliSeconds

Luis V2

6433 MilliSeconds

1million

Old Method Scalar Function

160710 MilliSeconds

Dohsan

63750 MilliSeconds

Luis

15450 MilliSeconds

Dwain

175366 MilliSeconds

Magoo varchar255

15513 MilliSeconds

Luis V2

17843 MilliSeconds

How do they handle some special cases?

DECLARE @SingleTestString VARCHAR(255) = 'ándre, ándre, luís and o''brien had a low-budget 3d printer in washington d.c.',

@TestVar2 VARCHAR(255);

PRINT 'Original String'

PRINT @SingleTestString;

PRINT 'Old Method Scalar Function'

SELECT @TestVar2 = Utility.f_ProperCase(@SingleTestString);

PRINT @TestVar2

PRINT 'Dohsan'

SELECT @TestVar2 = ProperCaseString FROM dbo.ProperCase(@SingleTestString);

PRINT @TestVar2

PRINT 'Luis'

SELECT @TestVar2 = ProperCased FROM dbo.ProperCase1(@SingleTestString);

PRINT @TestVar2

PRINT 'Dwain'

SELECT @TestVar2 = ProperCaseStr FROM dbo.ProperCase2(@SingleTestString);

PRINT @TestVar2

PRINT 'Magoo varchar255'

SELECT @TestVar2 = [text] FROM dbo.ProperCase3(@SingleTestString);

PRINT @TestVar2

PRINT 'Luis V2'

SELECT @TestVar2 = ProperCaseString FROM dbo.ProperCase4(@SingleTestString);

PRINT @TestVar2

Results:

Original String

ándre, ándre, luís and o'brien had a low-budget 3d printer in washington d.c.

Old Method Scalar Function

Ándre, Ándre, Luís And O'Brien Had A Low-Budget 3d Printer In Washington D.c.

Dohsan

Ándre, Ándre, Luís And O'Brien Had A Low-Budget 3d Printer In Washington D.c.

Luis

Ándre, Ándre, Luís And O'brien Had A Low-budget 3d Printer In Washington D.c.

Dwain

Ándre, Ándre, Luís And O'Brien Had A Low-Budget 3D Printer In Washington D.C.

Magoo varchar255

Ándre, Ándre, Luís And O'Brien Had A Low-Budget 3D Printer In Washington D.C.

Luis V2

Ándre, Ándre, Luís And O'Brien Had A Low-Budget 3d Printer In Washington D.C.

Dohsan SSCrazy Points: 2972 More actions · Answer 2

Original Test strings were small (16 chars), the original function was only for 255 although a few of the functions presented have been able to handle far more. So upping it to nearer the 255 limit to see how they cope (so all functions can be run)

IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#ProperTest','U') IS NOT NULL

DROP TABLE #ProperTest;

SELECTREPLICATE(STUFF(STUFF(CHAR(ABS(CHECKSUM(NEWID()))%26+65)

+ CHAR(ABS(CHECKSUM(NEWID()))%26+65)

+ CHAR(ABS(CHECKSUM(NEWID()))%26+65),N%16+1,1,' '),N%3+1,1,' '),14) AS String

INTO #ProperTest

FROMdbo.GetNums(1,300000);

Results:

Old Method Scalar Function

617393 MilliSeconds

Dohsan

162690 MilliSeconds

Luis

36680 MilliSeconds

Dwain

424590 MilliSeconds

Magoo varchar255

44063 MilliSeconds

Luis V2

49436 MilliSeconds

Ed Wagner SSC Guru Points: 287026 More actions · Answer 3

I ran some similar comparisons, but I had run them up to handle varchar(8000) and ran against a million-row test table with the strings filled to capacity. They were running pretty close to each other (with MM being the best at ~28 seconds), but I haven't tested everything with special characters or multiple trailing spaces. Dropping down to a max length of 255 definitely improved performance (dropping the best to ~22 seconds), but I hadn't completed testing last night before I needed to get some sleep. 😛

All in all, I think the work done on this thread has been excellent.

Tally Tables - Performance Personified
String Splitting with True Performance
Best practices on how to ask questions

mister.magoo SSC-Forever Points: 47174 More actions · Answer 4

That is some excellent work on the testing there Dohsan - well done!:-)

MM

select geometry::STGeomFromWKB(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

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004340 More actions · Answer 5

BWAAA-HAAA!!!! Dare I say IT? DARE I? Oh, what the heck...

[font="Arial Black"]"Ahhhhhhh MAGOO! You've done it again." [/font]:-P (Sorry ol' friend... I've been holding it back for more than a month and couldn't resist).

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
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Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

mister.magoo SSC-Forever Points: 47174 More actions · Answer 6

Jeff Moden (1/17/2014)
BWAAA-HAAA!!!! Dare I say IT? DARE I? Oh, what the heck...
[font="Arial Black"]"Ahhhhhhh MAGOO! You've done it again." [/font]:-P (Sorry ol' friend... I've been holding it back for more than a month and couldn't resist).

If I am honest, I kind of missed it :hehe:

MM

select geometry::STGeomFromWKB(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

Dwain Camps SSC Guru Points: 86948 More actions · Answer 7

I agree that you've done some very thorough testing here. Excellent work!

Dohsan (1/17/2014)
Dwain Ándre, Ándre, Luís And O'Brien Had A Low-Budget 3D Printer In Washington D.C.

I wasn't sure how you wanted to handle "Low-Budget' and "3D" but either can be handled in the opposite manner by adjusting the match pattern.

My mantra: No loops! No CURSORs! No RBAR! Hoo-uh![/I]
My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?

My advice:
INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.

Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
[url url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/St

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183706 More actions · Answer 8

dwain.c (1/17/2014)
I agree that you've done some very thorough testing here. Excellent work!
Dohsan (1/17/2014)
Dwain Ándre, Ándre, Luís And O'Brien Had A Low-Budget 3D Printer In Washington D.C.
I wasn't sure how you wanted to handle "Low-Budget' and "3D" but either can be handled in the opposite manner by adjusting the match pattern.

Don't make me start with contractions or possessives. You'Ll Say It'S My Fault.:hehe:

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

Dohsan SSCrazy Points: 2972 More actions · Answer 9

Luis Cazares (1/17/2014)
dwain.c (1/17/2014)
I agree that you've done some very thorough testing here. Excellent work!
Dohsan (1/17/2014)
Dwain Ándre, Ándre, Luís And O'Brien Had A Low-Budget 3D Printer In Washington D.C.
I wasn't sure how you wanted to handle "Low-Budget' and "3D" but either can be handled in the opposite manner by adjusting the match pattern.
Don't make me start with contractions or possessives. You'Ll Say It'S My Fault.:hehe:

hah very true!

ChrisM@home SSC-Insane Points: 24260 More actions · Answer 10

This thread has been fun to watch, thanks folks! Here's an option I'm surprised nobody posted up:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[IF_ProperWithREPLACE]

(

@inputstring VARCHAR(8000)

)

RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING

AS

RETURN

(

SELECT ProperisedString =

REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(

REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(

' '+@inputstring COLLATE Latin1_General_BIN,

' a',' A'),' b',' B'),' c',' C'),' d',' D'),' e',' E'),' f',' F'),' g',' G'),' h',' H'),' i',' I'),

' j',' J'),' k',' K'),' l',' L'),' m',' M'),' n',' N'),' o',' O'),' p',' P'),' q',' Q'),' r',' R'),

' s',' S'),' t',' T'),' u',' U'),' v',' V'),' w',' W'),' x',' X'),' y',' Y'),' z',' Z')

)

It's about 8x faster than any of the solutions posted so far, leaving some scope for dealing with weird stuff like accents.

[font="Arial"]^{Low-hanging fruit picker and defender of the moggies}[/font]

For better assistance in answering your questions, please read this[/url].

Understanding and using APPLY, (I)[/url] and (II)[/url] Paul White[/url]

Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins[/url] / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url] Jeff Moden[/url]

Sean Lange SSC Guru Points: 286590 More actions · Answer 11

I came back to this thread today because I was trying to proper case some stuff around here. I needed to exclude tokens that contain at least a single digit but all other tokens should be init caps.

I made a slight modification to Dwain's that worked well for my purposes.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[ProperCaseWithNumbers]

(

@StrIn VARCHAR(255)

)

RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING

AS

RETURN

SELECT STUFF((

SELECT CASE

WHEN split.Item LIKE '%[0-9]%'

THEN ' ' + split.Item

ELSE ' ' + Upper(LEFT(split.Item, 1)) + Lower(Substring(split.Item, 2, 255))

END AS word

FROM dbo.Delimitedsplit8k(@StrIn, ' ') split

FOR XML PATH('')

,TYPE

).value('.', 'varchar(255)'), 1, 1, '') AS ProperCased

We have some data coming from the mainframe and it is all caps but I need to make this data more "user friendly". Here is an example of this one in action.

declare @MyVals table (SeriesName varchar(25))

insert @MyVals

select '9400 SERIES' union all

select '9760 SERIES' union all

select 'ADE360 SERIES' union all

select 'CUSTOM' union all

select 'M16360 SERIES' union all

select 'N1260 SERIES' union all

select 'N3160 SERIES' union all

select 'PA360 SERIES' union all

select 'S260 SERIES'

select *

from @MyVals v

cross apply dbo.ProperCaseWithNumbers(v.SeriesName)

_______________________________________________________________

Need help? Help us help you.

Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

Dwain Camps SSC Guru Points: 86948 More actions · Answer 12

Sean Lange (2/26/2014)
I made a slight modification to Dwain's that worked well for my purposes.

Can't say I see that much of a resemblance but it is always good to hear success stories.

My mantra: No loops! No CURSORs! No RBAR! Hoo-uh![/I]
My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?

My advice:
INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.

Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
[url url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/St

Sean Lange SSC Guru Points: 286590 More actions · Answer 13

dwain.c (2/26/2014)
Sean Lange (2/26/2014)
I made a slight modification to Dwain's that worked well for my purposes.
Can't say I see that much of a resemblance but it is always good to hear success stories.

Doh!!! That's because it was a modification of the code Luis posted.

Thanks Luis!!!

_______________________________________________________________

Need help? Help us help you.

Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183706 More actions · Answer 14

Sean Lange (2/27/2014)
dwain.c (2/26/2014)
Sean Lange (2/26/2014)
I made a slight modification to Dwain's that worked well for my purposes.
Can't say I see that much of a resemblance but it is always good to hear success stories.
Doh!!! That's because it was a modification of the code Luis posted.
Thanks Luis!!!

I knew the code look familiar 😀

I guess that's the benefit of collective intelligence.

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

batesview SSChasing Mays Points: 648 More actions · Answer 15

I wonder if a CLR function would be worth considering here? .NET includes the System.Globalization.TextInfo.ToTitleCase() function which seems to do a pretty good job getting things properly capitalized. Not perfect but perhaps an extension method could handle the edge cases ?