---
title: Decapitalize string
tags: string
expertise: intermediate
cover: blog_images/forest-balcony.jpg
firstSeen: 2018-01-11T11:58:40+02:00
lastUpdated: 2020-11-01T20:50:57+02:00
---

Decapitalizes the first letter of a string.

- Use array destructuring and `String.prototype.toLowerCase()` to decapitalize first letter, `...rest` to get array of characters after first letter and then `Array.prototype.join()` to make it a string again.
- Omit the `upperRest` argument to keep the rest of the string intact, or set it to `true` to convert to uppercase.

```js
const decapitalize = ([first, ...rest], upperRest = false) =>
  first.toLowerCase() +
  (upperRest ? rest.join('').toUpperCase() : rest.join(''));
```

```js
decapitalize('FooBar'); // 'fooBar'
decapitalize('FooBar', true); // 'fOOBAR'
```