The linux shell has provided us with many hidden gems. Some of things are string manipulation without using external commands like SED/AWK. In this post we will see how to convert a string from lower case to upper and upper case to lower by using string manipulation techniques and tr command.

String manipulation for lower case to upper case:

Note: Below examples will work in bash v4 and above versions.

Example1: Convert an entire string from lower to upper

Example:

VAR1=surendrakumar

VAR2=${VAR1^^}

echo $VAR2

SURENDRAKUMAR

​Example2: Convert only first character to upper case.

Example

VAR1=surendrakumar

VAR2=${VAR1^}

echo $VAR2

Surendrakumar

Example3: Suppose you just want to convert a specific characters like a,d,e then use below code.

VAR1=surendrakumar

VAR2=${VAR1^^[ade]}

echo $VAR2

surEnDrAkumAr

Example4: Convert an entire string from upper to lower

Example:

VAR1=SURENDRAKUMAR

VAR2=${VAR1,,}

echo $VAR2

surendrakumar

​Example5: Convert only first character to lower case.

Example

VAR1=SURENDRAKUMAR

VAR2=${VAR1^}

echo $VAR2

sURENDRAKUMAR

Example6: Suppose you just want to convert a specific characters like A,D,E then use below code.

VAR1=SURENDRAKUMAR

VAR2=${VAR1^^[ADE]}

echo $VAR2

SUReNdRaKUMaR

Example7:How about using tr command?​

lower case to upper case

VAR1=surendrakumar

echo $VAR1 | tr '[a-z]’ ‘[A-Z]'

Output:

SURENDRAKUMAR

Upper case to lower case

VAR1=SURENDRAKUMAR

echo $VAR1 | tr '[A-Z]’ ‘[a-z]'

Output:

surendrakumar

Hope this helps some one not use sed and awk for just case convertions.

 

	 
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Surendra Anne

Mr Surendra Anne is from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India. He is a Linux/Open source supporter who believes in Hard work, A down to earth person, Likes to share knowledge with others, Loves dogs, Likes photography. He works as Devops Engineer with Taggle systems, an IOT automatic water metering company, Sydney . You can contact him at surendra (@) linuxnix dot com.