I received an export of user data and the names were all over the place; some all lower case, some all upper, some a mixed bag. I needed a way to take the names and standardize them all to be Proper Case so messaging looks good.
While Excel has the proper() function, Coda has upper() and lower() but nothing similar. I created the tool below to help you solve this problem!
Wow! Really cool way to manipulate text values!
Thank you for posting!
Consolidating my shared docs into one - here you can find the First Last Parser amongst others:
@BenLee In my above post 
I linked directly to the First Last Name section but it is rendering for me in the āSide by Sideā section?
When you click on the Share button in the doc, can you use the āEmbedā option and paste that code in? That might force that one section. You can also hide the sections menu on the left if you want.
OK I edited the above post and that worked @BenLee. 
This is amazing! Thank you for sharing! However I have a little issue - lots of the names in my list have a middle name - is there any chance you could help in adapting this so that it can accomodate for middle names!?
Thanks if so!!
Hi @Ben_Swanson
In the doc in the second comment in this post there is a column called [Name Split Proper Case] that might be what you want. Iāve also added three separate columns: [First Name], [Middle (Second) Name] and [Last Name].
Thank you!! Iāve just requested access to your doc, really appreciate you sharing it!
this. is. AMAZING! Thank you!! Saved me so much time figuring out this myself, I really appreciate you sharing it!!
I find this formula a little more readable:
Firstname.Lower().Replace(1,1 ,Firstname.Left(1).Upper())
For clarity Firstname is the column. The formula converts the string to lowercase, then replaces the first character, with an uppercase version is the first character!
Dear @David_Clegg,
Thanks for your input, you are right when the first name is just a single name, but did you test this with my Firstname: Jean Pierre?
One of the things to concern when writing a formula is to catch all optional cases!
It was simply an example to capitalise the first letter, but a more complete solution would be:
FullName.Lower().Split(' ').FormulaMap(
CurrentValue.Replace(1,1 ,CurrentValue.Left(1).Upper())
)
.Join(' ')
Where FullName is the column
Here we take the FullName and convert it to lowercase. Then we split each name (based on space) into multiple names. Then, for each of those names, we replace the first character with an uppercase version of the same character.
Finally, we join all the names back together with a space between each name.
@Johg_Ananda, @David_Cleggās answer should be marked as the solution so that people can more easily find it.
Just used this, worked like a charm. Thank you!!!
PS: I do think Coda should add an out-of-the-box function for the non-function-savvy users 
For the record, a few examples of names where this will fail silently:
MacCain
OāNeil
NāGolo
DeVito
Ludwig van Beethoven
Charles de Gaulle
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Maria da Silva
Giscard dāEstaing
Fujiwara no Michinaga
Youāre absolutely rightānames are notoriously difficult!
The proposed logic by @David_Clegg was just a simple rule (capitalize the first letter after a space), and as you clearly demonstrated, thatās obviously not going to work for every case.
Building a truly robust, formula-based solution for all the worldās naming conventions is an incredibly complex challenge. It might not even be possible to do reliably with formulas alone.
This is actually a task where an AI could be genuinely helpful. LLMs are trained to handle these kinds of nuanced, pattern-based jobs quite well. It might be worth exploring. Youāll likely get more consistent, production-ready results from a paid service, as the free versions are often just for demonstration.
Cheers,
Christiaan