How to change the case of all post titles to "Title Case"

Question

I am helping my father with his WordPress website.
It has over 1,700 posts with TITLES IN UPPERCASE.

We'd like to change these to "Title Case" in the database (possibly using this PHP script).

The WordPress "To Title Case" plug-in changes the case at the template level - we'd like to change it at the database level.

What would be the best way to apply the script to all titles in the WordPress database?
I could write some code from scratch but I'm guessing there's existing code/methods out there that can apply a function/method across all titles.

Answer 1

Updating the posts

$all_posts = get_posts(
    'posts_per_page' => -1,
    'post_type' => 'post'
);

foreach ( $all_posts as $single ) {
    wp_update_post( array(
        'ID' => $single->ID,
        'post_title' => to_title_case( $single->post_title ) // see function below
    ));
}

Converting a string to "Title Case"

And, while not pertinent to WP, for the sake of completeness:

function to_title_case( $string ) {
     /* Words that should be entirely lower-case */
     $articles_conjunctions_prepositions = array(
          'a','an','the',
          'and','but','or','nor',
          'if','then','else','when',
          'at','by','from','for','in',
          'off','on','out','over','to','into','with'
     );
     /* Words that should be entirely upper-case (need to be lower-case in this list!) */
     $acronyms_and_such = array(
         'asap', 'unhcr', 'wpse', 'wtf'
     );
     /* split title string into array of words */
     $words = explode( ' ', mb_strtolower( $string ) );
     /* iterate over words */
     foreach ( $words as $position => $word ) {
         /* re-capitalize acronyms */
         if( in_array( $word, $acronyms_and_such ) ) {
             $words[$position] = mb_strtoupper( $word );
         /* capitalize first letter of all other words, if... */
         } elseif (
             /* ...first word of the title string... */
             0 === $position ||
             /* ...or not in above lower-case list*/
             ! in_array( $word, $articles_conjunctions_prepositions ) 
         ) {
             $words[$position] = ucwords( $word );
         }
     }         
     /* re-combine word array */
     $string = implode( ' ', $words );
     /* return title string in title case */
     return $string;
}

Obviously, both lists of words could be expanded - the lower-case list especially by more prepositions, the acronyms by those that are used often on the current site.

The WP-specific part is only the upper code block though, anyhow.

Answer 2

You could change the post title when it is viewed:

add_action( 'the_post', 'wpse_94856_title_update' );

function wpse_94856_title_update( $post )
{
    if ( empty ( $post->post_title ) )
        return;

    $new_title = mb_convert_case( $post->post_title, MB_CASE_TITLE, "UTF-8" );

    if ( $post->post_title === $new_title )
        return;

    wp_update_post(
        array (
            'ID'         => $post->ID,
            'post_title' => $new_title
        )
    );

    // $post is passed by reference, so we update this property in real time
    $post->post_title = $new_title;
}

This is just an idea, based on this answer. Not tested.

Answer 3

A quick "solution" would be via CSS using text-transform.

text-transform: capitalize;

However, it would be best if you could change the capitalization on the database since this is a matter of styles, not content :) If you want titles in uppercase, do so through CSS or you'll have this kind of problem!

Answer 4

This works on an individual title by title reference basis

 <?php print  ucwords(strtolower(get_the_title())); ?>

strtolower turns the title into lowercase. Then the ucwords makes it proper case

Answer 5

I created a Open Source, Free (no-Pro) plugin that offers exceptions to the rules and other things. The reason I made this was to use on Imports and situations like yours. It changes the Title in the Admin section and in the database, meaning it will work with all themes that are not using a text-transformation on the title. It will do Upper, lower and mixed. It doesn't currently do sentence case. Please see my ProperProgramming link to see screenshots of how it works. Super easy and you can do it in chunks. The plugin also has configurable exceptions for lower and UPPER case words. So it will do Acronyms.

https://properprogramming.com/tools/wp-change-titles-case/

Or directly on WordPress

https://wordpress.org/plugins/change-titles-case/