I have a NSString formatted like this:
"Hello world 12 looking for some 56"
I want to find all instances of numbers separated by whitespace and place them in an NSArray. I dont want to remove the numbers though.
Whats the best way of achieving this?
This is a solution using regular expression as suggested in the comment.
NSString *string = #"Hello world 12 looking for some 56";
NSRegularExpression *expression = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:#"\\b\\d+" options:nil error:nil];
NSArray *matches = [expression matchesInString:string options:nil range:(NSMakeRange(0, string.length))];
NSMutableArray *result = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for (NSTextCheckingResult *match in matches) {
[result addObject:[string substringWithRange:match.range]];
}
NSLog(#"%#", result);
First make an array using NSString's componentsSeparatedByString method and take reference to this SO question. Then iterate the array and refer to this SO question to check if an array element is number: Checking if NSString is Integer.
I don't know where you are looking to do perform this action because it may not be fast (such as if it's being called in a table cell it may be choppy) based upon the string size.
Code:
+ (NSArray *)getNumbersFromString:(NSString *)str {
NSMutableArray *retVal = [NSMutableArray array];
NSCharacterSet *numericSet = [NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet];
NSString *placeholder = #"";
unichar currentChar;
for (int i = [str length] - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
currentChar = [str characterAtIndex:i];
if ([numericSet characterIsMember:currentChar]) {
placeholder = [placeholder stringByAppendingString:
[NSString stringWithCharacters:¤tChar
length:[placeholder length]+1];
} else {
if ([placeholder length] > 0) [retVal addObject:[placeholder intValue]];
else placeholder = #"";
return [retVal copy];
}
To explain what is happening above, essentially I am,
going through every character until I find a number
adding that number including any numbers after to a string
once it finds a number it adds it to an array
Hope this helps please ask for clarification if needed
I am making an iOS calculator and it I'm having minor difficulties with the backspace button (for deleting the last number of the value displayed on a label).
To get the current value on the label I use
double currentValue = [screenLabel.text doubleValue]
Following other questions, I tried something like
-(IBAction)backspacePressed:(id)sender
{
NSMutableString *string = (NSMutableString*)[screenLabel.text];
int length = [string length];
NSString *temp = [string substringToIndex:length-1]
;
[screenLabel.text setText:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#",temp]];
}
But it does not work,
(Xcode says "setText is deprecated", "NSString may not respond to setText" and that an identifier is expected in the first line of code inside the IBAction)
and I do not really understand this code to make it work by myself.
What should I do?
It should be
[screenLabel setText:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#",temp]];
Your Xcode clearly says that you are trying to call setText' method on anNSStringwhere as you should be calling that on aUILabel. YourscreenLabel.textis retuning anNSString. You should just usescreenLabelalone and should callsetText` on that.
Just use,
NSString *string = [screenLabel text];
The issue with that was that, you are using [screenLabel.text]; which is not correct as per objective-c syntax to call text method on screenLabel. Either you should use,
NSString *string = [screenLabel text];
or
NSString *string = screenLabel.text;
In this method, I dont think you need to use NSMutableString. You can just use NSString instead.
In short your method can be written as,
-(IBAction)backspacePressed:(id)sender
{
NSString *string = [screenLabel text];
int length = [string length];
NSString *temp = [string substringToIndex:length-1];
[screenLabel setText:temp];
}
As per your question in comments(which is deleted now), if you want to display zero when there are no strings present, try,
-(IBAction)backspacePressed:(id)sender
{
NSString *string = [screenLabel text];
int length = [string length];
NSString *temp = [string substringToIndex:length-1];
if ([temp length] == 0) {
temp = #"0";
}
[screenLabel setText:temp];
}
I am trying to split the string into parts and insert into a table how should i do it?
I got an error for splitting of the array which is: -[__NSArrayI componentsSeparatedByString:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x7a421e0
NSArray *BusRoute = alightDesc;
int i;
int count = [BusRoute count];
for (i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
NSDictionary *dic = [BusRoute objectAtIndex: i];
NSDictionary *STEPS = [dic valueForKey:#"STEPS"];
NSString *AlightDesc = [STEPS valueForKey:#"AlightDesc"];
NSLog(#"AlightDesc = %#", AlightDesc);
NSArray *aDescArray = [AlightDesc componentsSeparatedByString:#","];
NSLog(#"aDescArray = %#", aDescArray);
}
This is the string which I'm splitting, i got it from the NSLog
AlightDesc = (
"Block1",
"Block2",
"Block3"
)
please help I'm stuck thanks.
Objective C is not a strongly typed language. All you know for sure about [STEPS valueForKey:#"AlightDesc"] is that it will return an object (of type id). When you wrote NSString *AlightDesc = [STEPS valueForKey:#"AlightDesc"] the compiler did not complain because NSString * is a valid object type. Unfortunately there is a logic error in your code so that what was actually stored under the key #"AlightDesc" is an NSArray. As others have mentioned, NSArray does not respond to componentsSeparatedByString: so you get an error at runtime.
The easy fix for this is to correct your logic: Either store an NSString in the first place or treat what you get out as an NSArray. As #janusfidel mentioned you can use an NSArray perfectly well in a table by using objectAtIndex: to get the string for the entry you want.
In some more complicated cases you may not know what you will be getting out of a dictionary for a particular key. In that case in Objective C you can just ask the object:
id anObject = [STEPS valueForKey:#"AlightDesc"];
if ([anObject isKindOfClass:[NSString class]]) {
NSString *aString = (NSString *)anObject;
// Treat as a string ...
} else if ([anObject isKindOfClass:[NSString class]]) {
// Object is an array ...
Your NSString *AlightDesc should look like this
NSString *AlightDesc = "Block1,Block2,Block3";
NSArray *aDescArray = [AlightDesc componentsSeparatedByString:#","];
If your string is what you say it is
AlightDesc = ("Block1","Block2","Block3");
then your string is the problem because it's already broken up.
I have multiple NSStrings and i wish to merge them into one other, here is my code so far...
NSString *newURL = [_parameters objectForKey:#"url"];
NSString *emailBody = #"Hey!<br>I just snipped my long url with My Cool App for iPhone in just a few seconds!<p><b>"+newURL+#"</b></p>";
If you know the number of your existing strings, you can just concat them:
NSString* longString = [firstString stringByAppendingString:secondString];
or:
NSString* longString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"A string: %#, a float: %1.2f", #"string", 31415.9265];
If you have an arbitrary number of strings, you could put them in an NSArray and join them with:
NSArray* chunks = ... get an array, say by splitting it;
NSString* string = [chunks componentsJoinedByString: #" :-) "];
(Taken from http://borkware.com/quickies/one?topic=NSString)
Another good resource for string handling in Cocoa is: "String Programming Guide"
You can try
NSString *emailBody = [ NSString stringWithFormat: #"Hey!<br>I just snipped my long url with Snippety Snip for iPhone in just a few seconds, why not check it out?<p><b>%#</b></p>", newURL ];
Given that you've got multiple strings I recommend using an Array:
NSArray *array = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"URL", #"person", "body"];
NSString *combined = [array componentsJoinedByString:#""];
Formatting string has better readability and less error-prone:
NSString *newURL = [_parameters objectForKey:#"url"];
NSString *emailBody = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"Hey!<br>I just snipped my long url with Snippety Snip for iPhone in just a few seconds, why not check it out?<p><b>%#</b></p>", newUrl, newUrl];
You can concatenate strings in Cocoa using:
[NSString stringByAppendingString:]
Or you could use the [NSString stringWithFormat] method which will allow you to specify a C-style format string with a variable argument list to populate the escape sequences.
Is there any way to create a new
NSString from a format string like #"xxx=%#, yyy=%#" and a NSArray of objects?
In the NSSTring class there are many methods like:
- (id)initWithFormat:(NSString *)format arguments:(va_list)argList
- (id)initWithFormat:(NSString *)format locale:(id)locale arguments:(va_list)argList
+ (id)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)format, ...
but non of them takes a NSArray as an argument, and I cannot find a way to create a va_list from a NSArray...
It is actually not hard to create a va_list from an NSArray. See Matt Gallagher's excellent article on the subject.
Here is an NSString category to do what you want:
#interface NSString (NSArrayFormatExtension)
+ (id)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)format array:(NSArray*) arguments;
#end
#implementation NSString (NSArrayFormatExtension)
+ (id)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)format array:(NSArray*) arguments
{
char *argList = (char *)malloc(sizeof(NSString *) * arguments.count);
[arguments getObjects:(id *)argList];
NSString* result = [[[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:format arguments:argList] autorelease];
free(argList);
return result;
}
#end
Then:
NSString* s = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"xxx=%#, yyy=%#" array:#[#"XXX", #"YYY"]];
NSLog( #"%#", s );
Unfortunately, for 64-bit, the va_list format has changed, so the above code no longer works. And probably should not be used anyway given it depends on the format that is clearly subject to change. Given there is no really robust way to create a va_list, a better solution is to simply limit the number of arguments to a reasonable maximum (say 10) and then call stringWithFormat with the first 10 arguments, something like this:
+ (id)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)format array:(NSArray*) arguments
{
if ( arguments.count > 10 ) {
#throw [NSException exceptionWithName:NSRangeException reason:#"Maximum of 10 arguments allowed" userInfo:#{#"collection": arguments}];
}
NSArray* a = [arguments arrayByAddingObjectsFromArray:#[#"X",#"X",#"X",#"X",#"X",#"X",#"X",#"X",#"X",#"X"]];
return [NSString stringWithFormat:format, a[0], a[1], a[2], a[3], a[4], a[5], a[6], a[7], a[8], a[9] ];
}
Based on this answer using Automatic Reference Counting (ARC): https://stackoverflow.com/a/8217755/881197
Add a category to NSString with the following method:
+ (id)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)format array:(NSArray *)arguments
{
NSRange range = NSMakeRange(0, [arguments count]);
NSMutableData *data = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:sizeof(id) * [arguments count]];
[arguments getObjects:(__unsafe_unretained id *)data.mutableBytes range:range];
NSString *result = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:format arguments:data.mutableBytes];
return result;
}
One solution that came to my mind is that I could create a method that works with a fixed large number of arguments like:
+ (NSString *) stringWithFormat: (NSString *) format arguments: (NSArray *) arguments {
return [NSString stringWithFormat: format ,
(arguments.count>0) ? [arguments objectAtIndex: 0]: nil,
(arguments.count>1) ? [arguments objectAtIndex: 1]: nil,
(arguments.count>2) ? [arguments objectAtIndex: 2]: nil,
...
(arguments.count>20) ? [arguments objectAtIndex: 20]: nil];
}
I could also add a check to see if the format string has more than 21 '%' characters and throw an exception in that case.
#Chuck is correct about the fact that you can't convert an NSArray into varargs. However, I don't recommend searching for the pattern %# in the string and replacing it each time. (Replacing characters in the middle of a string is generally quite inefficient, and not a good idea if you can accomplish the same thing in a different way.) Here is a more efficient way to create a string with the format you're describing:
NSArray *array = ...
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [NSAutoreleasePool new];
NSMutableArray *newArray = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:[array count]];
for (id object in array) {
[newArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"x=%#", [object description]]];
}
NSString *composedString = [[newArray componentsJoinedByString:#", "] retain];
[pool drain];
I included the autorelease pool for good housekeeping, since an autoreleased string will be created for each array entry, and the mutable array is autoreleased as well. You could easily make this into a method/function and return composedString without retaining it, and handle the autorelease elsewhere in the code if desired.
This answer is buggy. As noted, there is no solution to this problem that is guaranteed to work when new platforms are introduced other than using the "10 element array" method.
The answer by solidsun was working well, until I went to compile with 64-bit architecture. This caused an error:
EXC_BAD_ADDRESS type EXC_I386_GPFLT
The solution was to use a slightly different approach for passing the argument list to the method:
+ (id)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)format array:(NSArray*) arguments;
{
__unsafe_unretained id * argList = (__unsafe_unretained id *) calloc(1UL, sizeof(id) * arguments.count);
for (NSInteger i = 0; i < arguments.count; i++) {
argList[i] = arguments[i];
}
NSString* result = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:format, *argList] ;// arguments:(void *) argList];
free (argList);
return result;
}
This only works for arrays with a single element
There is no general way to pass an array to a function or method that uses varargs. In this particular case, however, you could fake it by using something like:
for (NSString *currentReplacement in array)
[string stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:[string rangeOfString:#"%#"]
withString:currentReplacement];
EDIT: The accepted answer claims there is a way to do this, but regardless of how fragile this answer might seem, that approach is far more fragile. It relies on implementation-defined behavior (specifically, the structure of a va_list) that is not guaranteed to remain the same. I maintain that my answer is correct and my proposed solution is less fragile since it only relies on defined features of the language and frameworks.
For those who need a Swift solution, here is an extension to do this in Swift
extension String {
static func stringWithFormat(format: String, argumentsArray: Array<AnyObject>) -> String {
let arguments = argumentsArray.map { $0 as! CVarArgType }
let result = String(format:format, arguments:arguments)
return result
}
}
Yes, it is possible. In GCC targeting Mac OS X, at least, va_list is simply a C array, so you'll make one of ids, then tell the NSArray to fill it:
NSArray *argsArray = [[NSProcessInfo processInfo] arguments];
va_list args = malloc(sizeof(id) * [argsArray count]);
NSAssert1(args != nil, #"Couldn't allocate array for %u arguments", [argsArray count]);
[argsArray getObjects:(id *)args];
//Example: NSLogv is the version of NSLog that takes a va_list instead of separate arguments.
NSString *formatSpecifier = #"\n%#";
NSString *format = [#"Arguments:" stringByAppendingString:[formatSpecifier stringByPaddingToLength:[argsArray count] * 3U withString:formatSpecifier startingAtIndex:0U]];
NSLogv(format, args);
free(args);
You shouldn't rely on this nature in code that should be portable. iPhone developers, this is one thing you should definitely test on the device.
- (NSString *)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)format andArguments:(NSArray *)arguments {
NSMutableString *result = [NSMutableString new];
NSArray *components = format ? [format componentsSeparatedByString:#"%#"] : #[#""];
NSUInteger argumentsCount = [arguments count];
NSUInteger componentsCount = [components count] - 1;
NSUInteger iterationCount = argumentsCount < componentsCount ? argumentsCount : componentsCount;
for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < iterationCount; i++) {
[result appendFormat:#"%#%#", components[i], arguments[i]];
}
[result appendString:[components lastObject]];
return iterationCount == 0 ? [result stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]] : result;
}
Tested with format and arguments:
NSString *format = #"xxx=%#, yyy=%# last component";
NSArray *arguments = #[#"XXX", #"YYY", #"ZZZ"];
Result: xxx=XXX, yyy=YYY last component
NSString *format = #"xxx=%#, yyy=%# last component";
NSArray *arguments = #[#"XXX", #"YYY"];
Result: xxx=XXX, yyy=YYY last component
NSString *format = #"xxx=%#, yyy=%# last component";
NSArray *arguments = #[#"XXX"];
Result: xxx=XXX last component
NSString *format = #"xxx=%#, yyy=%# last component";
NSArray *arguments = #[];
Result: last component
NSString *format = #"some text";
NSArray *arguments = #[#"XXX", #"YYY", #"ZZZ"];
Result: some text
I found some code on the web that claims that this is possible however I haven't managed to do it myself, however if you don't know the number of arguments in advance you also need to build the format string dynamically so I just don't see the point.
You better off just building the string by iterating the array.
You might find the stringByAppendingString: or stringByAppendingFormat: instance method handy .
One can create a category for NSString and make a function which receives a format, an array and returns the string with replaced objects.
#interface NSString (NSArrayFormat)
+ (NSString *)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)format arrayArguments:(NSArray *)arrayArguments;
#end
#implementation NSString (NSArrayFormat)
+ (NSString *)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)format arrayArguments:(NSArray *)arrayArguments {
static NSString *objectSpecifier = #"%#"; // static is redundant because compiler will optimize this string to have same address
NSMutableString *string = [[NSMutableString alloc] init]; // here we'll create the string
NSRange searchRange = NSMakeRange(0, [format length]);
NSRange rangeOfPlaceholder = NSMakeRange(NSNotFound, 0); // variables are declared here because they're needed for NSAsserts
NSUInteger index;
for (index = 0; index < [arrayArguments count]; ++index) {
rangeOfPlaceholder = [format rangeOfString:objectSpecifier options:0 range:searchRange]; // find next object specifier
if (rangeOfPlaceholder.location != NSNotFound) { // if we found one
NSRange substringRange = NSMakeRange(searchRange.location, rangeOfPlaceholder.location - searchRange.location);
NSString *formatSubstring = [format substringWithRange:substringRange];
[string appendString:formatSubstring]; // copy the format from previous specifier up to this one
NSObject *object = [arrayArguments objectAtIndex:index];
NSString *objectDescription = [object description]; // convert object into string
[string appendString:objectDescription];
searchRange.location = rangeOfPlaceholder.location + [objectSpecifier length]; // update the search range in order to minimize search
searchRange.length = [format length] - searchRange.location;
} else {
break;
}
}
if (rangeOfPlaceholder.location != NSNotFound) { // we need to check if format still specifiers
rangeOfPlaceholder = [format rangeOfString:#"%#" options:0 range:searchRange];
}
NSAssert(rangeOfPlaceholder.location == NSNotFound, #"arrayArguments doesn't have enough objects to fill specified format");
NSAssert(index == [arrayArguments count], #"Objects starting with index %lu from arrayArguments have been ignored because there aren't enough object specifiers!", index);
return string;
}
#end
Because NSArray is created at runtime we cannot provide compile-time warnings, but we can use NSAssert to tell us if number of specifiers is equal with number of objects within array.
Created a project on Github where this category can be found. Also added Chuck's version by using 'stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:' plus some tests.
Using one million objects into array, version with 'stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:' doesn't scale very well (waited about 2 minutes then closed the app). Using the version with NSMutableString, function made the string in about 4 seconds. The tests were made using simulator. Before usage, tests should be done on a real device (use a device with lowest specs).
Edit: On iPhone 5s the version with NSMutableString takes 10.471655s (one million objects); on iPhone 5 takes 21.304876s.
Here's the answer without explicitly creating an array:
NSString *formattedString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%# World, Nice %#", #"Hello", #"Day"];
First String is the target string to be formatted, the next string are the string to be inserted in the target.
No, you won't be able to. Variable argument calls are solved at compile time, and your NSArray has contents only at runtime.