Python function that capitalizes entire word

Question

So I have created a python function:

def capitalize(x):
  for a in x:
    a.capitalize()
  print x

capitalize("heey")

It is supposed to turn the argument "heey" into "HEEY". But it does not work. It prints "heey". What's up?

Answer 1

capitalize() is not an in-place operation. It doesn't modify the original string but instead it returns the capitalized version. You need to save this value in a variable. For example, the following code:

a = "heey"
a.capitalize()
b = a.capitalize()
print("a = " + a)
print("b = " + b)

has output:

a = heey
b = Heey

also, if you're going to make all chars uppercase, just call upper() instead, but if you absolutely want to use capitalize() you can do this:

def capitalize(x):
    y = ""
    for a in x:
        y += a.capitalize()
    print(y)

capitalize("heey")

output:

HEEY

and here's a shorter version that does the same thing:

def capitalize(x):
    y = "".join([a.capitalize() for a in x])
    print(y)