NSString to UTF8String error when contains chinese character - objective-c

I tried to encrypt a data that might contains chinese character, however i kept getting null when I decrypt the string. the way I encrypt the data is derived from our android team, So I wanna keep it the same. It looks like when I call [[NSString alloc] initWithData:dataFrom64 encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]; It gives me a NSString representation of an UTF8String. and when I call NSString UTF8String, it returns something unexpected. I tried to print out every thing to see where goes wrong. Sorry for the mess.
I really need help on this. I can't figure out how to solve it.
NSLog(#"--------Test begins--------");
NSString *chinese = #"abcd 測試";
/** encrypt **/
char const *testCStr = [testString UTF8String];
char const *cStr = [chinese UTF8String];
char *newCStr = (char*)calloc(sizeof(char), strlen(cStr));
strcpy(newCStr, cStr);
int lenStr = strlen(cStr);
int lenKey = testString.length;
for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < lenStr; i++, j++) {
if (j >= lenKey) j = 0;
newCStr[i] = cStr[i] ^ testCStr[j];
}
NSString *tempStr = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%s",newCStr] UTF8String]];
NSData *tempData = [tempStr dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSString *base64Str = [tempData base64EncodedString];
char const *dataCStr = [tempData bytes];
NSString* dataToStr = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:tempData
encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(#"chinese : %#", chinese);
NSLog(#"chinese utf8 : %s ", [chinese UTF8String]);
NSLog(#"encrypted utf8 : %s ", newCStr);
NSLog(#"--------Encrypt--------");
NSLog(#"encrypted str : %#", tempStr);
NSLog(#"temp data bytes : %s", dataCStr);
NSLog(#"data to str : %#", dataToStr);
NSLog(#"base64 data : %#", base64Str);
NSLog(#"data temp : %#", tempData );
/** decrypt**/
NSData *dataFrom64 = [NSData dataFromBase64String:base64Str];
NSString *strFromData = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:dataFrom64
encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
char const *cStrFromData = [strFromData UTF8String];
char *newStr2 = (char*)calloc(sizeof(char), strlen(cStrFromData));
strcpy(newStr2, cStrFromData);
for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < lenStr; i++, j++) {
if (j >= lenKey) j = 0;
newStr2[i] = cStrFromData[i] ^ testCStr[j];
}
NSLog(#"--------Decrypt--------");
NSLog(#"data 64 : %#", dataFrom64 );
NSLog(#"data 64 bytes : %s", [dataFrom64 bytes]);
NSLog(#"str from data : %#", strFromData);
NSLog(#"cStr from data : %s", [strFromData UTF8String]);
NSLog(#"decrypt utf8 : %s", newStr2);
NSLog(#"decrypt str : %#", [NSString stringWithUTF8String:newStr2]);
and here is the out put:
--------Test begins--------
chinese : abcd 測試
chinese utf8 : abcd 測試
encrypted utf8 : #!B5aºÄõ–ôá
--------Encrypt--------
encrypted str : #!B5aºÄõ–ôá
temp data bytes : #!B5aºÄõ–ôá6.889 WebSocke
data to str : #!B5aºÄõ–ôá
base64 data : IyFCNWHCusOEw7XigJPDtMOh
data temp : <23214235 61c2bac3 84c3b5e2 8093c3b4 c3a1>
--------Decrypt--------
data 64 : <23214235 61c2bac3 84c3b5e2 8093c3b4 c3a1>
data 64 bytes : #!B5aºÄõ–ôá
str from data : #!B5aºÄõ–ôá
cStr from data : #!B5aºÄõ–ôá
decrypt utf8 : abcd òÇÙºÛî‚Äì√¥√°
decrypt str : (null)
--------test ends--------

The problem is that newCStr is not null-terminated, and does also not represent a valid
UTF-8 string. So this conversion
NSString *tempStr = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%s",newCStr] UTF8String]];
is bound to fail (or give a wrong result).
The following code avoids unnecessary conversions:
NSLog(#"--------Test begins--------");
NSString *plainText = #"abcd 測試";
NSString *keyString = #"topsecret";
/** encrypt **/
NSMutableData *plainData = [[plainText dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] mutableCopy];
NSData *keyData = [keyString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
uint8_t *plainBytes = [plainData mutableBytes];
const uint8_t *keyBytes = [keyData bytes];
for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < [plainData length]; i++, j++) {
if (j >= [keyData length]) j = 0;
plainBytes[i] ^= keyBytes[j];
}
NSString *base64Str = [plainData base64EncodedString];
NSLog(#"chinese : %#", plainText);
NSLog(#"--------Encrypt--------");
NSLog(#"base64 data : %#", base64Str);
/** decrypt**/
NSData *dataFrom64 = [NSData dataFromBase64String:base64Str];
NSMutableData *decodeData = [dataFrom64 mutableCopy];
uint8_t *decodeBytes = [decodeData mutableBytes];
for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < [decodeData length]; i++, j++) {
if (j >= [keyData length]) j = 0;
decodeBytes[i] ^= keyBytes[j];
}
NSString *decrypted = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:decodeData
encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(#"--------Decrypt--------");
NSLog(#"decrypt str : %#", decrypted);
Output:
--------Test begins--------
chinese : abcd 測試
--------Encrypt--------
base64 data : FQ0TF0WFysmc3ck=
--------Decrypt--------
decrypt str : abcd 測試

Related

How do I convert a raw-byte-string to NSData? [duplicate]

I'm trying to convert a Hex NSString to NSData (I'm using the below attached code). The following is the output:
<00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000>
which looks totally irrelevant to me. Any idea/ suggestions on where its going wrong?
NSString *strData = #"72ff63cea198b3edba8f7e0c23acc345050187a0cde5a9872cbab091ab73e553";
NSLog(#"string Data length is %d",[strData length]);
NSMutableData *commandToSend= [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
unsigned char whole_byte;
char byte_chars[2];
int i;
for (i=0; i < [strData length]/2; i++) {
byte_chars[0] = [strData characterAtIndex:i*2];
byte_chars[1] = [strData characterAtIndex:i*2+1];
whole_byte = strtol(byte_chars, NULL, [strData length]);
[commandToSend appendBytes:&whole_byte length:1];
}
NSLog(#"%#", commandToSend);
NSString *command = #"72ff63cea198b3edba8f7e0c23acc345050187a0cde5a9872cbab091ab73e553";
command = [command stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#" " withString:#""];
NSMutableData *commandToSend= [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
unsigned char whole_byte;
char byte_chars[3] = {'\0','\0','\0'};
int i;
for (i=0; i < [command length]/2; i++) {
byte_chars[0] = [command characterAtIndex:i*2];
byte_chars[1] = [command characterAtIndex:i*2+1];
whole_byte = strtol(byte_chars, NULL, 16);
[commandToSend appendBytes:&whole_byte length:1];
}
NSLog(#"%#", commandToSend);
Here is another method that also handles leading <, trailing > and embedded spaces such as
<9dc69faf a7434ba9 aef57f5c 365d571f 4c3753c4 ae13db42 57d184ca e00246c5>
Code:
+ (NSData *)dataFromHexString:(NSString *)string
{
string = [string lowercaseString];
NSMutableData *data= [NSMutableData new];
unsigned char whole_byte;
char byte_chars[3] = {'\0','\0','\0'};
int i = 0;
int length = string.length;
while (i < length-1) {
char c = [string characterAtIndex:i++];
if (c < '0' || (c > '9' && c < 'a') || c > 'f')
continue;
byte_chars[0] = c;
byte_chars[1] = [string characterAtIndex:i++];
whole_byte = strtol(byte_chars, NULL, 16);
[data appendBytes:&whole_byte length:1];
}
return data;
}
This is based on the answer by #Nikunj R. Jadav
This might be more useful, Apple has shared a NSData category.
NSData+HexString.m
The code is:
#implementation NSData (HexString)
// Not efficent
+(id)dataWithHexString:(NSString *)hex
{
char buf[3];
buf[2] = '\0';
NSAssert(0 == [hex length] % 2, #"Hex strings should have an even number of digits (%#)", hex);
unsigned char *bytes = malloc([hex length]/2);
unsigned char *bp = bytes;
for (CFIndex i = 0; i < [hex length]; i += 2) {
buf[0] = [hex characterAtIndex:i];
buf[1] = [hex characterAtIndex:i+1];
char *b2 = NULL;
*bp++ = strtol(buf, &b2, 16);
NSAssert(b2 == buf + 2, #"String should be all hex digits: %# (bad digit around %d)", hex, i);
}
return [NSData dataWithBytesNoCopy:bytes length:[hex length]/2 freeWhenDone:YES];
}
#end
I see several solution have been post only able to convert string with even length.
So here is my solution which also able return correct data if the string is odd length like this "DBA" became data like this this "\x0D\xBA"
+ (NSData *)dataFromHexString:(NSString *) string {
if([string length] % 2 == 1){
string = [#"0"stringByAppendingString:string];
}
const char *chars = [string UTF8String];
int i = 0, len = (int)[string length];
NSMutableData *data = [NSMutableData dataWithCapacity:len / 2];
char byteChars[3] = {'\0','\0','\0'};
unsigned long wholeByte;
while (i < len) {
byteChars[0] = chars[i++];
byteChars[1] = chars[i++];
wholeByte = strtoul(byteChars, NULL, 16);
[data appendBytes:&wholeByte length:1];
}
return data;
}

Populate NSData directly from NSString that contains "HEX" representation [duplicate]

I'm trying to convert a Hex NSString to NSData (I'm using the below attached code). The following is the output:
<00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000>
which looks totally irrelevant to me. Any idea/ suggestions on where its going wrong?
NSString *strData = #"72ff63cea198b3edba8f7e0c23acc345050187a0cde5a9872cbab091ab73e553";
NSLog(#"string Data length is %d",[strData length]);
NSMutableData *commandToSend= [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
unsigned char whole_byte;
char byte_chars[2];
int i;
for (i=0; i < [strData length]/2; i++) {
byte_chars[0] = [strData characterAtIndex:i*2];
byte_chars[1] = [strData characterAtIndex:i*2+1];
whole_byte = strtol(byte_chars, NULL, [strData length]);
[commandToSend appendBytes:&whole_byte length:1];
}
NSLog(#"%#", commandToSend);
NSString *command = #"72ff63cea198b3edba8f7e0c23acc345050187a0cde5a9872cbab091ab73e553";
command = [command stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#" " withString:#""];
NSMutableData *commandToSend= [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
unsigned char whole_byte;
char byte_chars[3] = {'\0','\0','\0'};
int i;
for (i=0; i < [command length]/2; i++) {
byte_chars[0] = [command characterAtIndex:i*2];
byte_chars[1] = [command characterAtIndex:i*2+1];
whole_byte = strtol(byte_chars, NULL, 16);
[commandToSend appendBytes:&whole_byte length:1];
}
NSLog(#"%#", commandToSend);
Here is another method that also handles leading <, trailing > and embedded spaces such as
<9dc69faf a7434ba9 aef57f5c 365d571f 4c3753c4 ae13db42 57d184ca e00246c5>
Code:
+ (NSData *)dataFromHexString:(NSString *)string
{
string = [string lowercaseString];
NSMutableData *data= [NSMutableData new];
unsigned char whole_byte;
char byte_chars[3] = {'\0','\0','\0'};
int i = 0;
int length = string.length;
while (i < length-1) {
char c = [string characterAtIndex:i++];
if (c < '0' || (c > '9' && c < 'a') || c > 'f')
continue;
byte_chars[0] = c;
byte_chars[1] = [string characterAtIndex:i++];
whole_byte = strtol(byte_chars, NULL, 16);
[data appendBytes:&whole_byte length:1];
}
return data;
}
This is based on the answer by #Nikunj R. Jadav
This might be more useful, Apple has shared a NSData category.
NSData+HexString.m
The code is:
#implementation NSData (HexString)
// Not efficent
+(id)dataWithHexString:(NSString *)hex
{
char buf[3];
buf[2] = '\0';
NSAssert(0 == [hex length] % 2, #"Hex strings should have an even number of digits (%#)", hex);
unsigned char *bytes = malloc([hex length]/2);
unsigned char *bp = bytes;
for (CFIndex i = 0; i < [hex length]; i += 2) {
buf[0] = [hex characterAtIndex:i];
buf[1] = [hex characterAtIndex:i+1];
char *b2 = NULL;
*bp++ = strtol(buf, &b2, 16);
NSAssert(b2 == buf + 2, #"String should be all hex digits: %# (bad digit around %d)", hex, i);
}
return [NSData dataWithBytesNoCopy:bytes length:[hex length]/2 freeWhenDone:YES];
}
#end
I see several solution have been post only able to convert string with even length.
So here is my solution which also able return correct data if the string is odd length like this "DBA" became data like this this "\x0D\xBA"
+ (NSData *)dataFromHexString:(NSString *) string {
if([string length] % 2 == 1){
string = [#"0"stringByAppendingString:string];
}
const char *chars = [string UTF8String];
int i = 0, len = (int)[string length];
NSMutableData *data = [NSMutableData dataWithCapacity:len / 2];
char byteChars[3] = {'\0','\0','\0'};
unsigned long wholeByte;
while (i < len) {
byteChars[0] = chars[i++];
byteChars[1] = chars[i++];
wholeByte = strtoul(byteChars, NULL, 16);
[data appendBytes:&wholeByte length:1];
}
return data;
}

Equivalent Hashing in C# and Objective-C using HMAC256

I'm working with a partner and we're not able to get C# and Objective-C to produce the same hashes using what we think are the same tools in the respective languages. In C#, I'm doing this:
byte[] noncebytes=new byte[32];
//We seed the hash generator with a new 32 position array. Each position is 0.
//In prod code this would be random, but for now it's all 0s.
HMACSHA256 hmac256 = new HMACSHA256(noncebytes);
string plaintext = "hello";
string UTFString = Convert.ToBase64String(
System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plaintext));
string HashString = Convert.ToBase64String(
hmac256.ComputeHash(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plaintext))); //Convert that hash to a string.
This produces the following base64string hash:
Q1KybjP+DXaaiSKmuikAQQnwFojiasyebLNH5aWvxNo=
What is the equivalent Objective-C code to do this? We need the client and the server to be able to generate matching hashes for matching data.
Here is the Objective-C code we are currently using:
...
NSData *zeroNumber = [self zeroDataWithBytes:32]; //empty byte array
NSString *nonceTest = [zeroNumber base64String]; // using MF_Base64Additions.h here
NSData *hashTest = [self hmacForKeyAndData:nonceTest withData:#"hello"]; //creating hash
NSString *hashTestText = [hashTest base64String];
NSLog(#"hello hash is %#", hashTestText);
...
//functions for zeroing out the byte. I'm sure there's a better way
- (NSData *)zeroDataWithBytes: (NSUInteger)length {
NSMutableData *mutableData = [NSMutableData dataWithCapacity: length];
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
NSInteger bits = 0;
[mutableData appendBytes: (void *) &bits length: 1];
} return mutableData;
}
//hash function
-(NSData *) hmacForKeyAndData:(NSString *)key withData:(NSString *) data {
const char *cKey = [key cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
const char *cData = [data cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
unsigned char cHMAC[CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH];
CCHmac(kCCHmacAlgSHA256, cKey, strlen(cKey), cData, strlen(cData), cHMAC);
return [[NSData alloc] initWithBytes:cHMAC length:sizeof(cHMAC)];
}
UPDATE:
There is a pretty good project on GitHub that seems to accomplish everything you want, plus a lot more encryption related options; includes unit tests.
NSData *hmacForKeyAndData(NSString *key, NSString *data)
{
const char *cKey = [key cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
const char *cData = [data cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
unsigned char cHMAC[CC_SHA256_DIGEST_LENGTH];
CCHmac(kCCHmacAlgSHA256, cKey, strlen(cKey), cData, strlen(cData), cHMAC);
return [[NSData alloc] initWithBytes:cHMAC length:sizeof(cHMAC)];
}
(Source)
With the above, I think you will have import <CommonCrypto/CommonHMAC.h>. The next step for encoding to Base64:
+ (NSString *)Base64Encode:(NSData *)data
{
//Point to start of the data and set buffer sizes
int inLength = [data length];
int outLength = ((((inLength * 4)/3)/4)*4) + (((inLength * 4)/3)%4 ? 4 : 0);
const char *inputBuffer = [data bytes];
char *outputBuffer = malloc(outLength);
outputBuffer[outLength] = 0;
//64 digit code
static char Encode[] = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/";
//start the count
int cycle = 0;
int inpos = 0;
int outpos = 0;
char temp;
//Pad the last to bytes, the outbuffer must always be a multiple of 4
outputBuffer[outLength-1] = '=';
outputBuffer[outLength-2] = '=';
/* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64
Text content M a n
ASCII 77 97 110
8 Bit pattern 01001101 01100001 01101110
6 Bit pattern 010011 010110 000101 101110
Index 19 22 5 46
Base64-encoded T W F u
*/
while (inpos < inLength){
switch (cycle) {
case 0:
outputBuffer[outpos++] = Encode[(inputBuffer[inpos]&0xFC)>>2];
cycle = 1;
break;
case 1:
temp = (inputBuffer[inpos++]&0x03)<<4;
outputBuffer[outpos] = Encode[temp];
cycle = 2;
break;
case 2:
outputBuffer[outpos++] = Encode[temp|(inputBuffer[inpos]&0xF0)>> 4];
temp = (inputBuffer[inpos++]&0x0F)<<2;
outputBuffer[outpos] = Encode[temp];
cycle = 3;
break;
case 3:
outputBuffer[outpos++] = Encode[temp|(inputBuffer[inpos]&0xC0)>>6];
cycle = 4;
break;
case 4:
outputBuffer[outpos++] = Encode[inputBuffer[inpos++]&0x3f];
cycle = 0;
break;
default:
cycle = 0;
break;
}
}
NSString *pictemp = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:outputBuffer];
free(outputBuffer);
return pictemp;
}
Note the second line of code in the objective-c portion of the question.
NSString *nonceTest = [zeroNumber base64String];
but it should be this:
NSString *nonceTest = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:zeroNumber encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
It was a case of converting the string to base64 when we didn't need to for the hmac seeeding.
We now get: Q1KybjP+DXaaiSKmuikAQQnwFojiasyebLNH5aWvxNo= as the hash on both platforms.

Reverse NSString text

I have been googling so much on how to do this, but how would I reverse a NSString? Ex:hi would become: ih
I am looking for the easiest way to do this.
Thanks!
#Vince I made this method:
- (IBAction)doneKeyboard {
// first retrieve the text of textField1
NSString *myString = field1.text;
NSMutableString *reversedString = [NSMutableString string];
NSUInteger charIndex = 0;
while(myString && charIndex < [myString length]) {
NSRange subStrRange = NSMakeRange(charIndex, 1);
[reversedString appendString:[myString substringWithRange:subStrRange]];
charIndex++;
}
// reversedString is reversed, or empty if myString was nil
field2.text = reversedString;
}
I hooked up that method to textfield1's didendonexit. When I click the done button, it doesn't reverse the text, the UILabel just shows the UITextField's text that I entered. What is wrong?
Block version.
NSString *myString = #"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
NSMutableString *reversedString = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:[myString length]];
[myString enumerateSubstringsInRange:NSMakeRange(0,[myString length])
options:(NSStringEnumerationReverse | NSStringEnumerationByComposedCharacterSequences)
usingBlock:^(NSString *substring, NSRange substringRange, NSRange enclosingRange, BOOL *stop) {
[reversedString appendString:substring];
}];
// reversedString is now zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba
Write a simple loop to do that:
// myString is "hi"
NSMutableString *reversedString = [NSMutableString string];
NSInteger charIndex = [myString length];
while (charIndex > 0) {
charIndex--;
NSRange subStrRange = NSMakeRange(charIndex, 1);
[reversedString appendString:[myString substringWithRange:subStrRange]];
}
NSLog(#"%#", reversedString); // outputs "ih"
In your case:
// first retrieve the text of textField1
NSString *myString = textField1.text;
NSMutableString *reversedString = [NSMutableString string];
NSInteger charIndex = [myString length];
while (myString && charIndex > 0) {
charIndex--;
NSRange subStrRange = NSMakeRange(charIndex, 1);
[reversedString appendString:[myString substringWithRange:subStrRange]];
}
// reversedString is reversed, or empty if myString was nil
textField2.text = reversedString;
jano’s answer is correct. Unfortunately, it creates a lot of unnecessary temporary objects. Here is a much faster (more complicated) implementation that basically does the same thing, but uses memcpy and unichar buffers to keep memory allocations to a minimum.
- (NSString *)reversedString
{
NSUInteger length = [self length];
if (length < 2) {
return self;
}
unichar *characters = calloc(length, sizeof(unichar));
unichar *reversedCharacters = calloc(length, sizeof(unichar));
if (!characters || !reversedCharacters) {
free(characters);
free(reversedCharacters);
return nil;
}
[self getCharacters:characters range:NSMakeRange(0, length)];
NSUInteger i = length - 1;
NSUInteger copiedCharacterCount = 0;
// Starting from the end of self, copy each composed character sequence into reversedCharacters
while (copiedCharacterCount < length) {
NSRange characterRange = [self rangeOfComposedCharacterSequenceAtIndex:i];
memcpy(reversedCharacters + copiedCharacterCount, characters + characterRange.location, characterRange.length * sizeof(unichar));
i = characterRange.location - 1;
copiedCharacterCount += characterRange.length;
}
free(characters);
NSString *reversedString = [[NSString alloc] initWithCharactersNoCopy:reversedCharacters length:length freeWhenDone:YES];
if (!reversedString) {
free(reversedCharacters);
}
return reversedString;
}
I tested this on 100,000 random multi-byte Unicode strings with lengths between 1 and 128. This version is about 4–5x faster than jano’s.
Enumerate substrings: 2.890528
MemCopy: 0.671090
Enumerate substrings: 2.840411
MemCopy: 0.662882
Test code is at https://gist.github.com/prachigauriar/9739805.
Update: I tried this again by simply converting to a UTF-32 buffer and reversing that.
- (NSString *)qlc_reversedStringWithUTF32Buffer
{
NSUInteger length = [self length];
if (length < 2) {
return self;
}
NSStringEncoding encoding = NSHostByteOrder() == NS_BigEndian ? NSUTF32BigEndianStringEncoding : NSUTF32LittleEndianStringEncoding;
NSUInteger utf32ByteCount = [self lengthOfBytesUsingEncoding:encoding];
uint32_t *characters = malloc(utf32ByteCount);
if (!characters) {
return nil;
}
[self getBytes:characters maxLength:utf32ByteCount usedLength:NULL encoding:encoding options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, length) remainingRange:NULL];
NSUInteger utf32Length = utf32ByteCount / sizeof(uint32_t);
NSUInteger halfwayPoint = utf32Length / 2;
for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < halfwayPoint; ++i) {
uint32_t character = characters[utf32Length - i - 1];
characters[utf32Length - i - 1] = characters[i];
characters[i] = character;
}
return [[NSString alloc] initWithBytesNoCopy:characters length:utf32ByteCount encoding:encoding freeWhenDone:YES];
}
This is about 3–4x times faster than the memcpy version. The aforementioned gist has been updated with the latest version of the code.
Enumerate substrings: 2.168705
MemCopy: 0.488320
UTF-32: 0.150822
Enumerate substrings: 2.169655
MemCopy: 0.481786
UTF-32: 0.147534
Enumerate substrings: 2.248812
MemCopy: 0.505995
UTF-32: 0.154531
I thought I'd throw another version out there in case anyone's interested.. personally, I like the cleaner approach using NSMutableString but if performance is the highest priority this one is faster:
- (NSString *)reverseString:(NSString *)input {
NSUInteger len = [input length];
unichar *buffer = malloc(len * sizeof(unichar));
if (buffer == nil) return nil; // error!
[input getCharacters:buffer];
// reverse string; only need to loop through first half
for (NSUInteger stPos=0, endPos=len-1; stPos < len/2; stPos++, endPos--) {
unichar temp = buffer[stPos];
buffer[stPos] = buffer[endPos];
buffer[endPos] = temp;
}
return [[NSString alloc] initWithCharactersNoCopy:buffer length:len freeWhenDone:YES];
}
I also wrote a quick test as well to compare this with the more traditional NSMutableString method (which I also included below):
// test reversing a really large string
NSMutableString *string = [NSMutableString new];
for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) {
int digit = i % 10;
[string appendFormat:#"%d", digit];
}
NSTimeInterval startTime = [[NSDate date] timeIntervalSince1970];
NSString *reverse = [self reverseString:string];
NSTimeInterval elapsedTime = [[NSDate date] timeIntervalSince1970] - startTime;
NSLog(#"reversed in %f secs", elapsedTime);
Results were:
using NSMutableString method (below) - "reversed in 3.720631 secs"
using unichar *buffer method (above) - "reversed in 0.032604 secs"
Just for reference, here's the NSMutableString method used for this comparison:
- (NSString *)reverseString:(NSString *)input {
NSUInteger len = [input length];
NSMutableString *result = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithCapacity:len];
for (int i = len - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
[result appendFormat:#"%c", [input characterAtIndex:i]];
}
return result;
}
Use method with any objects: NSString,NSNumber,etc..:
NSLog(#"%#",[self reverseObject:#12345]);
NSLog(#"%#",[self reverseObject:#"Hello World"]);
Method:
-(NSString*)reverseObject:(id)string{
string = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#",string];
NSMutableString *endString = [NSMutableString new];
while ([string length]!=[endString length]) {
NSRange range = NSMakeRange([string length]-[endString length]-1, 1);
[endString appendString: [string substringWithRange:range]];
}
return endString;}
Log:
2014-04-16 11:20:25.312 TEST[23733:60b] 54321
2014-04-16 11:20:25.313 TEST[23733:60b] dlroW olleH
Swift 2.0:
1) let str = "Hello, world!"
let reversed = String(str.characters.reverse())
print(reversed)
In Short:
String("This is a test string.".characters.reverse())
2)
let string = "This is a test string."
let characters = string.characters
let reversedCharacters = characters.reverse()
let reversedString = String(reversedCharacters)
The short way :
String("This is a test string.".characters.reverse())
OR
let string = "This is a test string."
let array = Array(string)
let reversedArray = array.reverse()
let reversedString = String(reversedArray)
The short way :
String(Array("This is a test string.").reverse())
Tested on Play Ground:
import Cocoa
//Assigning a value to a String variable
var str = "Hello, playground"
//Create empty character Array.
var strArray:Character[] = Character[]()
//Loop through each character in the String
for character in str {
//Insert the character in the Array variable.
strArray.append(character)
}
//Create a empty string
var reversedStr:String = ""
//Read the array from backwards to get the characters
for var index = strArray.count - 1; index >= 0;--index {
//Concatenate character to String.
reversedStr += strArray[index]
}
The shorter version:
var str = “Hello, playground”
var reverseStr = “”
for character in str {
reverseStr = character + reverseStr
}
Would it be faster if you only iterated over half the string swapping the characters at each end? So for a 5 character string, you swap characters 1 + 5, then 2 + 4 and 3 doesn't need swapped with anything.
NSMutableString *reversed = [original mutableCopyWithZone:NULL];
NSUInteger i, length;
length = [reversed length];
for (i = 0; i < length / 2; i++) {
// Store the first character as we're going to replace with the character at the end
// in the example, it would store 'h'
unichar startChar = [reversed characterAtIndex:i];
// Only make the end range once
NSRange endRange = NSMakeRange(length - i, 1);
// Replace the first character ('h') with the last character ('i')
// so reversed now contains "ii"
[reversed replaceCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(i, 1)
withString:[reversed subStringWithRange:endRange];
// Replace the last character ('i') with the stored first character ('h)
// so reversed now contains "ih"
[reversed replaceCharactersInRange:endRange
withString:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%c", startChar]];
}
edit ----
Having done some tests, the answer is No, its about 6 times slower than the version that loops over everything. The thing that slows us down is creating the temporary NSStrings for the replaceCharactersInRange:withString method. Here is a method that creates only one NSString by manipulating the character data directly and seems a lot faster in simple tests.
NSUInteger length = [string length];
unichar *data = malloc(sizeof (unichar) * length);
int i;
for (i = 0; i < length / 2; i++) {
unichar startChar = [string characterAtIndex:i];
unichar endChar = [string characterAtIndex:(length - 1) - i];
data[i] = endChar;
data[(length - 1) - i] = startChar;
}
NSString *reversed = [NSString stringWithCharacters:data length:length];
free(data);
Reverse the string using recursion:
#implementation NSString (Reversed)
+ (NSString *)reversedStringFromString:(NSString *)string
{
NSUInteger count = [string length];
if (count <= 1) { // Base Case
return string;
} else {
NSString *lastLetter = [string substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(count - 1, 1)];
NSString *butLastLetter = [string substringToIndex:count - 1];
return [lastLetter stringByAppendingString:[self reversedStringFromString:butLastLetter]];
}
}
#end
Google is your friend:
-(NSString *) reverseString
{
NSMutableString *reversedStr;
int len = [self length];
// Auto released string
reversedStr = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:len];
// Probably woefully inefficient...
while (len > 0)
[reversedStr appendString:
[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%C", [self characterAtIndex:--len]]];
return reversedStr;
}
None of the answers seem to consider multibyte characters so here is my sample code. It assumes you only ever pass in a string longer than one character.
- (void)testReverseString:(NSString *)string
{
NSMutableString *rString = [NSMutableString new];
NSInteger extractChar = [string length] - 1;
while (extractChar >= 0)
{
NSRange oneCharPos = [string rangeOfComposedCharacterSequenceAtIndex:extractChar];
for (NSUInteger add = 0; add < oneCharPos.length; ++ add)
{
unichar oneChar = [string characterAtIndex:oneCharPos.location + add];
[rString appendFormat:#"%C", oneChar];
}
extractChar -= oneCharPos.length;
}
NSLog(#"%# becomes %#", string, encryptedString );
}
NSString into char utf32 (always 32 bits (unsigned int))
Reverse
char utf32 into NSString
+ (NSString *)reverseString3:(NSString *)str {
unsigned int *cstr, buf, len = [str length], i;
cstr = (unsigned int *)[str cStringUsingEncoding:NSUTF32LittleEndianStringEncoding];
for (i=0;i < len/2;i++) buf = cstr[i], cstr[i] = cstr[len -i-1], cstr[len-i-1] = buf;
return [[NSString alloc] initWithBytesNoCopy:cstr length:len*4 encoding:NSUTF32LittleEndianStringEncoding freeWhenDone:NO];
}
Example : Apple_is  --->  si_elppA
NSMutableString *result = [NSMutableString stringWithString:#""];
for (long i = self.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
[result appendFormat:#"%c", [self characterAtIndex:i]];
}
return (NSString *)result;
Here is a collection of categories in Objective-C that will reverse both NSStrings and NSAttributedStrings (while preserving character attributes): TextFlipKit
For example:
NSString *example = #"Example Text";
NSString *reversed = example.tfk_reversed;
NSLog(#"Reversed: %#", reversed);
//prints 'Reversed: txeT elpmaxE'
Swift:
let string = "reverse"
let reversedStringCollection = string.characters.reversed()
for character in reversedStringCollection {
reversedString.append(character)
print(reversedString)
}
We can also achieve the reverse string as follows.
NSString *originalString = #"Hello";
NSString *reverseString;
for (NSUInteger index = originalString.length; index > 0; index--) {
char character = [originalString characterAtIndex:index];
reverseString = [reverseString stringByAppendingString:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%c", character]];
}
or
NSString *originalString = #"Hello";
NSString *reverseString;
for (NSUInteger index = originalString.length; index > 0; index--) {
char *character = [originalString characterAtIndex:index];
reverseString = [reverseString stringByAppendingString:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%s", character]];
}
Add a category to NSString so you can call reverse on any NSString in the future like this:
#import "NSString+Reverse.h"
#implementation NSString (Reverse)
-(NSString*)reverse {
char* cstring = (char*)[self UTF8String];
int length = [self length]-1;
int i=0;
while (i<=length) {
unichar tmp = cstring[i];
cstring[i] = cstring[length];
cstring[length] = tmp;
i++;
length--;
}
return [NSString stringWithCString:cstring encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
}
#end
str=#"india is my countery";
array1=[[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for(int i =0 ;i<[str length]; i++) {
NSString *singleCharacter = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%c", [str characterAtIndex:i]];
[array1 addObject:singleCharacter];
}
NSMutableString* theString = [NSMutableString string];
for (int i=[array1 count]-1; i>=0;i--){
[theString appendFormat:#"%#",[array1 objectAtIndex:i]];
}
I have written a category ove that one :D
//NSString+Reversed.h
#import
//
// NSString+Reversed.h
// HTMLPageFormatter
// Created by beit46 on 21.06.13.
//
#interface NSString (Reversed)
- (NSString *)reversedString;
#end
//NSString+Reversed.m
//
// NSString+Reversed.m
// HTMLPageFormatter
// Created by beit46 on 21.06.13.
#import "NSString+Reversed.h"
#implementation NSString (Reversed)
- (NSString *)reversedString {
NSMutableString *reversedString = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:[self length]];
[self enumerateSubstringsInRange:NSMakeRange(0,[self length])
options:(NSStringEnumerationReverse | NSStringEnumerationByComposedCharacterSequences)
usingBlock:^(NSString *substring, NSRange substringRange, NSRange enclosingRange, BOOL *stop) {
[reversedString appendString:substring];
}];
return [reversedString copy];
}
#end
I have two simple solutions for that purpose:
+(NSString*)reverseString:(NSString *)str
{
NSMutableString* reversed = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:str.length];
for (int i = (int)str.length-1; i >= 0; i--){
[reversed appendFormat:#"%c", [str characterAtIndex:i]];
}
return reversed;
}
+(NSString*)reverseString2:(NSString *)str
{
char* cstr = (char*)[str UTF8String];
int len = (int)str.length;
for (int i = 0; i < len/2; i++) {
char buf = cstr[i];
cstr[i] = cstr[len-i-1];
cstr[len-i-1] = buf;
}
return [[NSString alloc] initWithBytes:cstr length:len encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
}
Now, lets test it!
NSString* str = #"Objective-C is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language";
NSLog(#"REV 1: %#", [Util reverseString:str]);
start = [NSDate date];
for (int i = 0 ; i < 1000; ++i)
[Util reverseString:str];
end = [NSDate date];
NSLog(#"Time per 1000 repeats: %f", [end timeIntervalSinceDate:start]);
NSLog(#"REV 2: %#", [Util reverseString2:str]);
start = [NSDate date];
for (int i = 0 ; i < 1000; ++i)
[Util reverseString2:str];
end = [NSDate date];
NSLog(#"Time per 1000 repeats: %f", [end timeIntervalSinceDate:start]);
Results:
ConsoleTestProject[68292:303] REV 1: egaugnal gnimmargorp C eht ot gnigassem elyts-klatllamS sdda taht egaugnal gnimmargorp detneiro-tcejbo ,esoprup-lareneg a si C-evitcejbO
ConsoleTestProject[68292:303] Time per 1000 repeats: 0.063880
ConsoleTestProject[68292:303] REV 2: egaugnal gnimmargorp C eht ot gnigassem elyts-klatllamS sdda taht egaugnal gnimmargorp detneiro-tcejbo ,esoprup-lareneg a si C-evitcejbO
ConsoleTestProject[68292:303] Time per 1000 repeats: 0.002038
And more chars result was:
ConsoleTestProject[68322:303] chars: 1982
ConsoleTestProject[68322:303] Time 1 per 1000 repeats: 1.014893
ConsoleTestProject[68322:303] Time 2 per 1000 repeats: 0.024928
The same text with above functions:
ConsoleTestProject[68366:303] Time 1 per 1000 repeats: 0.873574
ConsoleTestProject[68366:303] Time 2 per 1000 repeats: 0.019300
ConsoleTestProject[68366:303] Time 3 per 1000 repeats: 0.342735 <-Vladimir Gritsenko
ConsoleTestProject[68366:303] Time 4 per 1000 repeats: 0.584012 <- Jano
So, choose performance!

NSData to NSString in ObjectiveC

I am converting the APN Device token which is in NSData format to NSString, but i am some special characters,
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:(NSData *)deviceToken {
NSLog(#"Device Token 111 : %#", deviceToken);
NSString *deviceStr = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:deviceToken encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(#"Device Token : %#", deviceStr);
[deviceStr release];
}
Device Token 111 : <d8b62879 48de8f9f 90507519 da1d39cf 1b700f7f 022dcaf4 7532a8b7 a6f9afe4>
Device Token : ض(yHÞPuÚ9Ïep-Êôu2¨·¦ù¯ä
I have even tried with NSASCIIStringEncoding.
What am i doing wrong ?
Try using the following method with [deviceToken bytes] as the first parameter.
const static char hexchar[] = "0123456789ABCDEF";
- (NSString*) bytes2hex:(const char* ) buffer length:(int)buf_len {
size_t i;
char *p;
int len = (buf_len * 2) + 1;
p = malloc(len);
for (i = 0; i < buf_len; i++) {
p[i * 2] = hexchar[(unsigned char)buffer[i] >> 4 & 0xf];
p[i * 2 + 1] = hexchar[((unsigned char)buffer[i] ) & 0xf];
}
p[i * 2] = '\0';
NSString * result = [NSString stringWithCString:p encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
free(p);
return result;
}
You may use description method to get the string representation of a token
NSLog(#"Token: [%#]", [devToken description]);
To remove non-numerical characters you may do:
NSCharacterSet *set = [[NSCharacterSet alphanumericCharacterSet] invertedSet];
NSString *tkn = [[[devToken description] componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:set] componentsJoinedByString: #""];