How Can I Efficiently Add Spaces Before Capital Letters in a String Without Using Regular Expressions?

Inserting Spaces before Capital Letters

When working with strings that lack spaces between capital letters, it can be beneficial to implement techniques to separate them. This article examines a non-regex approach to this task, demonstrating its advantages in both speed and simplicity.

Regex vs. Hand-Coded Function

Using regular expressions (regex) for this operation is a common strategy. However, a custom hand-coded function offers significant performance improvements.

The Custom Function

The provided function below examines each character of the input string. When it encounters an uppercase letter preceded by a non-space or when it recognizes an acronym (preserved with an optional parameter), it inserts a space. This method is faster than regex, particularly for longer strings.

Considerations for Acronyms

Initially, the custom function did not account for acronyms. However, it has been revised to handle them seamlessly. The updated code includes additional logic to preserve acronyms when they are surrounded by non-uppercase characters.

Conclusion

While regex solutions are popular for this task, the custom hand-coded function presented here proves to be both faster and simpler. It effectively inserts spaces before capital letters, including the recognition of acronyms, and serves as a more efficient approach for this specific task.

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