{"id":18947,"date":"2021-07-25T08:14:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-24T22:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/database.guide\/?p=18947"},"modified":"2021-07-25T08:16:16","modified_gmt":"2021-07-24T22:16:16","slug":"initcap-function-in-oracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/database.guide\/initcap-function-in-oracle\/","title":{"rendered":"INITCAP() Function in Oracle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Oracle, the INITCAP()<\/code> function returns its argument with the first letter of each word in uppercase, and all other letters in lowercase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For special linguistic requirements for case conversions, you may want to try the NLS_INITCAP()<\/a><\/code> function instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Syntax<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The syntax goes like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INITCAP(char)<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Where char<\/code><\/em> can be of any of the data types CHAR<\/code>, VARCHAR2<\/code>, NCHAR<\/code>, or NVARCHAR2<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Example<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Here’s a simple example to demonstrate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SELECT INITCAP('ponzi investment house')\nFROM DUAL;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
   INITCAP('PONZIINVESTMENTHOUSE') \n__________________________________ \nPonzi Investment House            <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
What if I Pass All UPPERCASE Letters?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Passing all uppercase letters doesn’t change the result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SELECT INITCAP('PONZI INVESTMENT HOUSE')\nFROM DUAL;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
   INITCAP('PONZIINVESTMENTHOUSE') \n__________________________________ \nPonzi Investment House            <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Null Values<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Passing null<\/code> returns null<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SET NULL 'null';\n\nSELECT INITCAP(null)\nFROM DUAL;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
   INITCAP(NULL) \n________________ \nnull            <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
By default, SQLcl and SQL*Plus return a blank space whenever null<\/code> occurs as a result of a SQL SELECT<\/a><\/code> statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, you can use SET NULL<\/a><\/code> to specify a different string to be returned. Here I specified that the string null<\/code> should be returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Incorrect Argument Count<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Calling INITCAP()<\/code> without passing any arguments returns an error:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SELECT INITCAP()\nFROM DUAL;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Error starting at line : 1 in command -\nSELECT INITCAP()\nFROM DUAL\nError at Command Line : 1 Column : 8\nError report -\nSQL Error: ORA-00909: invalid number of arguments\n00909. 00000 -  \"invalid number of arguments\"\n*Cause:    \n*Action:<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
And passing the wrong number of arguments results in an error:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SELECT INITCAP('Gosh', 'Dang', 'Investments')\nFROM DUAL;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Error starting at line : 1 in command -\nSELECT INITCAP('Gosh', 'Dang', 'Investments')\nFROM DUAL\nError at Command Line : 1 Column : 8\nError report -\nSQL Error: ORA-00909: invalid number of arguments\n00909. 00000 -  \"invalid number of arguments\"\n*Cause:    \n*Action:<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Oracle, the INITCAP() function returns its argument with the first letter of each word in uppercase, and all other letters in lowercase. For special linguistic requirements for case conversions, you may want to try the NLS_INITCAP() function instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[93,67,20],"class_list":["post-18947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oracle","tag-functions","tag-string-functions","tag-what-is"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/database.guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/database.guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/database.guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/database.guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/database.guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18947"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/database.guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19053,"href":"https:\/\/database.guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18947\/revisions\/19053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/database.guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/database.guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/database.guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}