How to capitalize the first letter of a string

Swift version: 5.0

Paul Hudson    @twostraws    March 28th 2019

If you want to capitalize the first letter of a string without touching the rest of the letters, add this simple extension of String:

extension String {
    func capitalizingFirstLetter() -> String {
        return prefix(1).capitalized + dropFirst()
    }

    mutating func capitalizeFirstLetter() {
        self = self.capitalizingFirstLetter()
    }
}

Here’s an example to try it out:

let test = "the rain in Spain"
print(test.capitalizingFirstLetter())

Available from iOS 8.0

Did this solution work for you? Please pass it on!

Tweet

Other people are reading…

• How to display different strings based on available space using variantFittingPresentationWidth()
• How to calculate the ROT13 of a string
• How to convert a string to lowercase letters
• NSRegularExpression: How to match regular expressions in strings
• Replacing text in a string using replacingOccurrences(of:)

About the Swift Knowledge Base

This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.