How to Change Case in Google Sheets (In 5 Easy Steps)

There can be times when cases of texts in your spreadsheets need to be changed or corrected.

Changing the case of each text manually is quite boring and inefficient.

In fact, in some situations, it is next to impossible.

(Imagine changing the case of thousands of text strings in your Google Sheets)

Fortunately, Google happens to offer a few functions that allow us to change cases in a much more efficient manner.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to change case in Google Sheets using one of the 3 different formulas (depending on your situation.)

How to Change Case in Google Sheets

The most convenient way to change text case in Google Sheets is to use the in-built functions.

Here are the 3 functions you can use to change text case in Google Sheets:

• UPPER – This function converts all characters of a text string in upper case.
• LOWER – This function converts all characters of a text string in lower case.
• PROPER – This function capitalize first letter of each word in a text string.

In this guide, we are going to see how and when you should be using one of the above functions.

In the end, I will also share a Google Sheets add-on that will help you change the case in your spreadsheet.

Ready to dive in? Let’s get started…

Capitalizing all letters using the UPPER function

The UPPER function is useful when you want to convert a given text to all capital letters.

The function takes a single text value or cell address containing a text value as an argument and converts it into upper-cased text.

For example, suppose you are working on a spreadsheet containing a list of product and their respective ASIN number.

(ASIN number is a 10-digital alphanumeric product identifier code issued by Amazon to every unique item offered in its catalog. It is always written in all capital letters)

Notice that some of the ASIN entries are not in their usual format. If you’ve ever checked the technical details section of a product on Amazon, ASIN numbers are always written in all capital letters.

This is where the UPPER function comes in handy. You can apply the UPPER function to each item in column B to quickly convert them into uppercase letters.

Here’s how it works:

1. Click on a cell where you will enter the formula and get result. In our example, I will be selecting C2

2. Next, type the equal sign = to begin the function, followed by the name of the function which is UPPER and an opening parenthesis (

3. Now it’s time to enter the argument for this function. Here we are going to reference the cell containing the original text which we want to convert. In our example, it is B2

NOTE – You can also manually type the exact text string between double quotation marks instead of referencing a cell. This is helpful when you are capitalizing one or two text strings.

4. Finally, type a closing parenthesis ) and hit Enter button on your keyboard.

That’s it… The above steps will convert the mixed text in cell B2 into complete upper-cased text.

If you want to use the same formula for other consecutive cells, use Google Sheets fill handle feature or use this function along with ARRAYFORMULA (I’ll discuss more on this in the latter part of this tutorial)

Changing Uppercase to Lowercase using LOWER function

If your spreadsheet contains a list of all caps or mixed case text strings, you can use the ‘LOWER’ function to convert them to all lower case letters.

For example, let’s say you have a list of email addresses in mixed (capital & small) letters.

Now we all know that although email addresses are not case-sensitive, it is usually written in lowercase.

In this case, we can use the LOWER function to convert them into lowercase. Here’s how it works:

1. Select a cell where you will enter the formula and get result. In our example, it is going to be B2

2. Next, type the equal sign = to begin the function, followed by the name of the function which is LOWER and an opening parenthesis (

3. Now make reference to the cell containing the original text which we want to convert. In our example, it is A2

4. Finally, type a closing parenthesis ) and hit Enter button on your keyboard.

That’s it… The function will instantly convert the text string into all lowercase letters.

Capitalize the first letter using the PROPER function

This is the function you’re going to often used when dealing with text data.

The PROPER function basically capitalizes the first letter of each substring of your text.

For example, Let’s suppose you have a list of the full names and you want to capitalize the first letter of the first and last name.

This can be easily done using the ‘PROPER’ function. Here’s how:

1. Select a cell where you will enter the formula and get result. In our example, I will be selecting B2 where I want to show the result.

2. Next, type the equal sign = to begin the function, followed by the name of the function which is PROPER and an opening parenthesis (

3. Now enter the cell address (containing the original text) as the argument to this function. In our example, it is A2

4. Finally, type a closing parenthesis ) and hit Enter button on your keyboard.

That’s it… This will capitalize the first word of full names.

How to Apply Case Changing Formulas to a Column?

What if you want to apply any of the above formulas to an entire column or a range of cells?

Well, you can use these formulas along with the ARRAYFORMULA.

(ARRAYFORMULA is a function that lets you perform the same operation on a range of cells without needing a formula in each cell.)

For example, rather than manually entering the ‘PROPER’ formula in each cell (check the below example), we can use “PROPER” formula along with “ARRAYFORMULA” to populate values down to a range of cells.

Here’s how it work…

1. Select the first cell where you want the array to start! For this example, I’ll be selecting B2

2. Next, type the equal sign = to begin the function, followed by ARRAYFORMULA and an opening parenthesis (

3. Next, type the name of our main function which is PROPER followed by another opening parenthesis ( for this function.

4. Make reference to the range of cells that contains the text you want to capitalize. In our example; It is going to be A2:A7

5. Finally, add two closing parentheses )) (one for ARRAY function and other one for PROPER function) and then hit the Enter key.

That’s it… This will apply the PROPER function to the select range of cells.

(NOTE – All three (UPPER, LOWER, and PROPER) functions work with ARRAYFORMULA in a similar manner.)

How to Change Text Case Using Google Sheets Add-on?

If you’re not comfortable with using formulas, there is another easier way to change cases in Google Sheets.

There is an add-on called “ChangeCase” from a developer named Alec Tutin. As the name itself suggest, you can use this add-on to change the text case into the upper, lower, title, and a few more case types with just a few clicks.

Here’s how you can install & use this add-on:

1. Open your Google Sheet document and navigate to Extensions > Add-ons > Get Add-ons

2. This will open Google Workspace Marketplace where you’ll find thousands of add-ons for all the Google Workspace tools including Google Sheets. You simply need to search for “ChangeCase” using the search box appearing at top.

3. Once you find the extension click on the Install button.

4. It will ask for your permission in order to start installing. Simply click on the Continue button and give access with your Google account.

5. Once the add-on is successfully installed, you’ll see a message something like this:

Click on done to get back to the Google Sheets document.

Now it’s time to use the Add-on…

6. Select the cell or range of cell you want to convert.

7. Navigate to Extensions > Add-ons > ChangeCase and select the desired case convertor from the drop-down menu.

In our case, I selected the “all uppercase” option and it instantly converted all the names into capital letters.

Final Thought:

Whether you have mistyped a text or imported raw data from an external source, it is very common to deal with text casing while working on a spreadsheet.

Thankfully, you can easily change text case using functions like “LOWER“, “UPPER”, and “PROPER” or installing an add-on like “ChangeCase“.

If you have to often deal with casing then installing the ChangeCase add-on will make more sense, otherwise, functions are always there.