How to change value of mutable string ? Here is what I do
NSString *str = #"This is string";
NSMutableString *str = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat:#"%#", str];
str = #"New string" -> wrong incompatible pointer types assigning to NSMutableString from NSString
You only need to use NSMutableString if you want to change parts of the string in place (append, insert etc.), often for performance reasons.
If you want to assign new values to the string variable, you're fine with a good old NSString as your last line simple assigns a complete new string object to str:
You can use setString to replace the whole string:
NSString *str = #"This is string";
NSMutableString *mutableStr = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat:#"%#", str];
...
[mutableStr setString:#"a different non mutable string"];
As indicated in another answer, a non-mutable NSString may be enough for your purposes.
This is how you should initialize a NSMutableString:
NSMutableString *string = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];
You could use any other way specified in the docs. The way you are doing it, you are not creating any instance of the NSMutableString class. Then, if you want to add some string to it:
[string appendString:#"content"];
Related
Let's say I have string like this:
NSString *myString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#%#%#%#%#",variable1,variable2,variable3,variable4,variable5];
and if variable2 is nil I don't want that in my string, like this:
NSString *myString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#%#%#%#",variable1,variable3,variable4,variable5];
Question
Is there any way to do this without having a lot of if-statements?
Don't use [NSString stringWithFormat:], and instead create an NSMutableString and append strings as necessary:
NSMutableString *s = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
if (variable1)
[s appendString:variable1];
if (variable2)
[s appendString:variable2];
if (variable3)
[s appendString:variable3];
if (variable4)
[s appendString:variable4];
if (variable5)
[s appendString:variable5];
(sorry I missed your point about "not having lots of if statements", however I don't think it can be avoided).
The easiest way is to use the compacted ternary operator to replace a null with an empty string. Using a slightly abridged version of your example:
NSString *myString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#%#",variable1 ?: #"",variable2 ?: #""];
When I make:
NSString x = #"test"
How do I edit it so that it becomes "testing"?
And when I put:
NSMutableString x = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:#"test"];
There is an error that says:
Initializer element is not a compile-time constant.
Thanks
When declaring NSMutableString, you missed the asterisk:
NSMutableString *x = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:#"test"];
// Here --------^
With a mutable string in hand, you can do
[x appendString:#"ing"];
to make x equal testing.
You do not have to go through a mutable string - this will also work:
NSString *testing = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#ing", test];
You need to declare your NSString or NSMutableString as *x. These are pointers to objects.
To change a string in code is quite easy, for example:
NSString *test = #"Test";
test = [test stringByAppendingString:#"ing"];
And the value in test will now be Testing.
There are a lot of great NSString methods, both instance and class methods, for manipulating and working with strings. Check the documentation for the complete list!
if you want to add multiple or single strings to an existing NSString use the following
NSString *x = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#%#", #"test",#"ing"];
Someone use the following to initialize the NSstring
NSString *astring = [[NSString alloc] init];
I am wondering why not just use
NSString *atring = nil or NSString *astring = #""
There is no semantic difference between NSString *astring = [[NSString alloc] init]; and NSString *astring = #""; - but NSString *astring = nil; is completely different. The first two produce a reference to an immutable string value, the last indicates the absence of a value.
Whether the various ways of generating an zero-length string produce different objects is entirely an implementation detail. The code:
NSString *a = [[NSString alloc] init];
NSString *b = [NSString new];
NSString *c = #"";
NSString *d = [NSString stringWithString:#""];
NSLog(#"%p, %p, %p, %p, %p", a, b, c, d, #""); // %p = print the value of the reference itself
outputs (the exact values will vary):
0x7fff7100c190, 0x7fff7100c190, 0x1000028d0, 0x1000028d0, 0x1000028d0
showing only 2 zero-length string objects were created - one for #"" and one for alloc/init. As the strings are immutable such sharing is safe, but in general you should not rely on it and try to compare strings using reference comparison (==).
NSString *atring = nil
is different -- it's a nil pointer, not an empty string.
NSString *astring = #""
is almost the same, if you change it to something like
NSString* astring=[#"" retain];
It's one of the things that "don't matter"; he or she simply used one way. Probably for no particular reason at all.
NSString *atring = nil; is simply setting the pointer to nil and does nothing other than ensure that pointer is set to nil;
NSString *astring = #""; is a shorthand literal and is the equivalent of [NSString stringWithString:#""];
On another point I don't know why you would want to initialize a string to nothing if its not mutable since you won't be able to change it later without overriding it.
I have an NSMutableString called makeString. I want to create it at the beginning of my program without having to set its text. I then want to be able to set its text. I am currently using the following to create it.
NSMutableString *make2String = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:#""];
I am then using the following to set its text value.
make2String = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"Gold.png"];
Is this ok to do or is there a better way to set an NSMutableString's text?
That is not ok, you are replacing your mutable string with an ordinary immutable string (and leaking the original mutable string in the process). You could do [NSMutableString stringWithFormat:#"Gold.png"] after releasing the old string if you wanted to go that route. Or you could use NSMutableString's setString: method to set the content.
But if you're not actually mutating the string and just assigning different strings, you don't need NSMutableString at all. Just do make2String = #"Gold.png"; and be done with it.
NSMutableString * aString = [NSMutableString alloc];
aString = [aString init];
[aString setString:#"yourText"];
[aString setString:#"yourNewText"];
[aString setString:#"yourNewNewText"];
//...
[aString release];
make2String = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat:#"Gold.png"];
FYI: This is how I allocate NSMutableStrings without setting text
NSMutableString *string = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
I have a string array as such:
NSArray *names;
names = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
#"FirstList",
#"SecondList",
#"ThirdList",
nil];
I'm trying to assign an element of this string array to a string variable as such:
NSString *fileName = names[0]; // "Incompatible types in initialization"
or with casting
NSString *fileName = (NSString)names[0]; // "Conversion to non-scalar type requested"
I'm trying to do this, so I can use the string in a method that takes a string as an argument, such as:
NSString *plistPath = [bundle pathForResource:filetName ofType:#"plist"];
Is there no way to assign an element of a string array to a string variable?
Update from 2014: The code in this post actually would work these days since special syntactic support has been added to the framework and compiler for indexing NSArrays like names[0]. But at the time this question was asked, it gave the error mentioned in this question.
You don't use C array notation to access NSArray objects. Use the -objectAtIndex: method for your first example:
NSString *fileName = [names objectAtIndex:0];
The reason for this is that NSArray is not "part of Objective-C". It's just a class provided by Cocoa much like any that you could write, and doesn't get special syntax privileges.
NSArray is a specialized array class unlike C arrays. To reference its contents you send it an objectAtIndex: message:
NSString *fileName = [names objectAtIndex:0];
If you want to perform an explicit cast, you need to cast to an NSString * pointer, not an NSString:
NSString *fileName = (NSString *)[names objectAtIndex:0];
With the new Objective-C literals is possible to use:
NSString *fileName = names[0];
So your code could look like this:
- (void)test5518658
{
NSArray *names = #[
#"FirstList",
#"SecondList",
#"ThirdList"];
NSString *fileName = names[0];
XCTAssertEqual(#"FirstList", fileName, #"Names doesn't match ");
}
Check Object Subscripting for more information.