Can regex do this faster?

Question

I want to capitalise each word and combine it into 1 word, e.g:

home = Home
about-us = AboutUs

Here is the function I use at the moment, can regex do this better or more efficient?

public function formatClassName($name)
{
 $name = str_replace('-', ' ', $name);
 $name = ucwords($name);
 $name = str_replace(' ', '', $name);
 return $name;
}

Answer 1

I don't think a regex can capitalize the words, so you'd still have to have two separate regexes, and I think with such simple cases, regular expressions are overkill (think hunting squirrels with artillery). This code is simple, clear and easy to understand. DON'T TOUCH IT!

Answer 2

With regex, you'd probably have to use something "complex", like preg_replace_callback (to be able to apply the strtoupper or ucwords function), which would make your code at least harder to understand -- and possibly slower, but the most important thing is that your code is easy to understand.

Considering your solution just works and is simple and easy, I would probably keep it, if I were in your place.

Answer 3

This code works:

$in = Array("home", "about-us");
foreach ($in as $a) {

  ## this is the line you're looking for
  $out = preg_replace('/-?\b(.)/e', "strtoupper('$1')", $a);

  echo "$a  = $out<br/>";
}

But I doubt it's faster, and I agree with the other commenters that it's not necessarily better. Decreasing three lines to one hairy regexp is only good if you're golfing.