I Declared this in the class file
\newcommand{\fullname}[1]{\gdef\@fullname{#1}}
With \fullname{john doe}
I am trying to get the fullname on class file. The \MakeUperrcase{\@fullname} works, but the \capitalisewords doesn't. I have tried
\capitalisewords\@fullname
and
\capitalisewords{\@fullname}
But the output is always
JOHN DOE
instead of
John Doe
When I checked the \@fullname, it prints
john doe
\capitalisewords doesn't expand its argument, so you need to expand the argument first, either as David suggested in the comments:
\expandafter\capitalisewords\expandafter{\@fullname}
or use the shortcut command \xcapitalisewords that does the same thing:
\xcapitalisewords{\@fullname}
The reason why the argument isn't automatically expanded is because the first letter uppercasing mechanism allows for semantic markup that takes a single argument. For example:
\newcommand*{\strong}[1]{\textcolor{red}{\textbf{#1}}}
\capitalisewords{\strong{lorem} ipsum}
This becomes effectively
\strong{\MakeUppercase lorem} \MakeUppercase ipsum
so the semantic markup doesn't interfere with the case-change. If the argument was expanded, this instance would break as you'd end up with
\textcolor{\MakeUppercase red}{\textbf{lorem}} \MakeUppercase ipsum
(It would actually be more complicated than this if \textcolor was also expanded.)
If the argument starts with a control sequence that's not followed by a group, then \capitalisewords assumes it's a character or symbol command (such as \aa), so
\capitalisewords{\aa lorem ipsum}
becomes
\MakeUppercase \aa lorem \MakeUppercase ipsum
This is what's happened in your example, which is why you end up with
\MakeUppercase\@fullname
\expandafter\capitalisewords\expandafter\{\@fullname}– David Carlisle Jan 28 '17 at 11:37\xcapitalisewords{\@fullname}– Nicola Talbot Jan 28 '17 at 12:49