def upper(a):
a_arr = numpy.asarray(a)<EOL>return _vec_string(a_arr, a_arr.dtype, '<STR_LIT>')<EOL>
Return an array with the elements converted to uppercase.

Calls `str.upper` element-wise.

For 8-bit strings, this method is locale-dependent.

Parameters
----------
a : array_like, {str, unicode}
    Input array.

Returns
-------
out : ndarray, {str, unicode}
    Output array of str or unicode, depending on input type

See also
--------
str.upper

Examples
--------
>>> c = np.array(['a1b c', '1bca', 'bca1']); c
array(['a1b c', '1bca', 'bca1'],
    dtype='|S5')
>>> np.char.upper(c)
array(['A1B C', '1BCA', 'BCA1'],
    dtype='|S5')