Text & Cleanup

Excel formula for Change text to proper/upper/lower case

Capitalize each word, or convert to all caps or lowercase, with one function.

Copy this formula

=PROPER(A2)

How the formula works

PROPER capitalizes the first letter of each word; UPPER makes everything uppercase; LOWER makes everything lowercase. They're ideal for cleaning inconsistent name and label capitalization.

Examples

=PROPER("john SMITH")→John Smith

Normalizes mixed-case names.

Other ways to do this

All uppercase

=UPPER(A2)

Converts everything to capitals.

All lowercase

=LOWER(A2)

Converts everything to lowercase.

FAQ

PROPER capitalizes 'Mcdonald' wrong — can I fix it?

PROPER can't know special casing. Fix exceptions with a nested SUBSTITUTE, e.g. =SUBSTITUTE(PROPER(A2), "Mcd", "McD").

Related formulas

Remove extra spaces from text Combine text from multiple cells

Functions used

PROPER UPPER LOWER

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