What is Sentence Case?
Sentence case is a writing style where the first letter of the first word in a sentence (and the first letter of proper nouns) is capitalized, and the rest of the letters are in lowercase. For example:
- This is a sentence in sentence case.
- The capital of Indonesia is Jakarta.
Sentence case makes reading easier and gives a polished look to your text. You might have come across sentence case in books, articles, and documents.
Why Use Excel Formula for Sentence Case?
Unfortunately, there is no direct Excel function or Excel button to change the text to sentence case. While there are dedicated functions in Excel to change the text to lower, upper, or proper case, there is nothing for sentence case.
However, you can use Excel formulas to convert text to sentence case by combining some basic text functions. This way, you can transform your text data to sentence case without needing any prior expertise in programming or advanced Excel functions.
For instance, imagine you have a list of product descriptions, and some are written in uppercase, while others are in lowercase. By converting the text to sentence case, you can make your product list more consistent and well-organized.
How to Convert Text to Sentence Case in Excel Formula?
There are different methods to convert text to sentence case in Excel formula, depending on your preference and data structure. In this article, we will show you three methods:
- Method 1: Using Flash Fill
- Method 2: Using a Custom Formula
- Method 3: Using an Online Tool
Method 1: Using Flash Fill
Excel’s Flash Fill is the easiest way to change the text case to a sentence case. You don’t need to understand Excel formulas or functions for this method.
Flash Fill works by deciphering patterns in the result that you manually provide. In our example, it will be able to identify that we want to capitalize the first letter and leave everything in lowercase.
Here are the steps to use Flash Fill to convert text to sentence case:
- Copy the text in cell A1 and paste it into cell B1.
- Change the first letter of cell B1 to upper case. So, in this example, you have to capitalize the first letter “t”.
- To use the Flash Fill, go to cell B2 and press “Control + E”.
- Column B will then display all sentences in “Sentence case” format.
Method 2: Using a Custom Formula
If you prefer to use a formula instead of Flash Fill, you can create a custom formula that combines some basic text functions. The formula will extract the first letter of the text, make it uppercase, and then concatenate it with the rest of the text in lowercase.
Here are the steps to use a custom formula to convert text to sentence case:
- Select the cell where you want to display the output. We’re going to select D2.
- In the formula bar, enter the formula below:
=UPPER(LEFT(A2,1))&LOWER(RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-1))
- Press Enter. Once you press Enter, Excel will take in the sentence from A2, make it a sentence case, and then display it in D2, where you entered the formula.
- Drag the fill handle to apply the formula to the remaining cells.
Let’s break down the formula and see how it works:
UPPER(LEFT(A2,1))returns the first letter of the text in cell A2 in uppercase. For example, if A2 contains “this is a sentence”, this part of the formula will return “T”.LOWER(RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-1))returns the rest of the text in cell A2 in lowercase. For example, if A2 contains “this is a sentence”, this part of the formula will return “his is a sentence”.&is the concatenation operator that joins two text strings together. For example, “T” & “his is a sentence” will return “This is a sentence”.- The final result is the text in cell A2 converted to sentence case.
Method 3: Using an Online Tool
Another option to convert text to sentence case in Excel is to use an online tool that can do the job for you. There are many websites that offer this service for free, such as Text Case Converter.
Here are the steps to use an online tool to convert text to sentence case:
- Copy the text from your Excel spreadsheet and paste it into the designated input area on the website.
- Select the “Sentence case” option and click the corresponding button to convert your text.
- Once the text has been converted, copy and paste it back into your Excel spreadsheet.
