Remove all whitespaces from NSString - objective-c

Question

I've been trying to get rid of the white spaces in an NSString, but none of the methods I've tried worked.
I have "this is a test" and I want to get "thisisatest".
I've used whitespaceCharacterSet, which is supposed to eliminate the white spaces.
NSString *search = [searchbar.text stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:
[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]];
but I kept getting the same string with spaces. Any ideas?

Answer 1

stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet only removes characters from the beginning and the end of the string, not the ones in the middle.
1) If you need to remove only a given character (say the space character) from your string, use:
[yourString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#" " withString:#""]
2) If you really need to remove a set of characters (namely not only the space character, but any whitespace character like space, tab, unbreakable space, etc), you could split your string using the whitespaceCharacterSet then joining the words again in one string:
NSArray* words = [yourString componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet :[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
NSString* nospacestring = [words componentsJoinedByString:#""];
Note that this last solution has the advantage of handling every whitespace character and not only spaces, but is a bit less efficient that the stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:withString:. So if you really only need to remove the space character and are sure you won't have any other whitespace character than the plain space char, use the first method.

Answer 2

I prefer using regex like this:
NSString *myString = #"this is a test";
NSString *myNewString = [myString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#"\\s"
withString:#""
options:NSRegularExpressionSearch
range:NSMakeRange(0, [myStringlength])];
//myNewString will be #"thisisatest"
You can make yourself a category on NSString to make life even easier:
- (NSString *) removeAllWhitespace
{
return [self stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#"\\s" withString:#""
options:NSRegularExpressionSearch
range:NSMakeRange(0, [self length])];
}
Here is a unit test method on it too:
- (void) testRemoveAllWhitespace
{
NSString *testResult = nil;
NSArray *testStringsArray = #[#""
,#" "
,#" basicTest "
,#" another Test \n"
,#"a b c d e f g"
,#"\n\tA\t\t \t \nB \f C \t ,d,\ve F\r\r\r"
,#" landscape, portrait, ,,,up_side-down ;asdf; lkjfasdf0qi4jr0213 ua;;;;af!####$$ %^^ & * * ()+ + "
];
NSArray *expectedResultsArray = #[#""
,#""
,#"basicTest"
,#"anotherTest"
,#"abcdefg"
,#"ABC,d,eF"
,#"landscape,portrait,,,,up_side-down;asdf;lkjfasdf0qi4jr0213ua;;;;af!####$$%^^&**()++"
];
for (int i=0; i < [testStringsArray count]; i++)
{
testResult = [testStringsArray[i] removeAllWhitespace];
STAssertTrue([testResult isEqualToString:expectedResultsArray[i]], #"Expected: \"%#\" to become: \"%#\", but result was \"%#\"",
testStringsArray[i], expectedResultsArray[i], testResult);
}
}

Answer 3

Easy task using stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString
NSString *search = [searchbar.text stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#" " withString:#""];

Answer 4

This may help you if you are experiencing \u00a0 in stead of (whitespace). I had this problem when I was trying to extract Device Contact Phone Numbers. I needed to modify the phoneNumber string so it has no whitespace in it.
NSString* yourString = [yourString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#"\u00a0" withString:#""];
When yourString was the current phone number.

Answer 5

stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString will replace all white space with in the string non only the starting and end
Use
[YourString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]]

Answer 6

- (NSString *)removeWhitespaces {
return [[self componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:
[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]]
componentsJoinedByString:#""];
}

Answer 7

This for me is the best way SWIFT
let myString = " ciao \n ciao "
var finalString = myString as NSString
for character in myString{
if character == " "{
finalString = finalString.stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString(" ", withString: "")
}else{
finalString = finalString.stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString("\n", withString: "")
}
}
println(finalString)
and the result is : ciaociao
But the trick is this!
extension String {
var NoWhiteSpace : String {
var miaStringa = self as NSString
if miaStringa.containsString(" "){
miaStringa = miaStringa.stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString(" ", withString: "")
}
return miaStringa as String
}
}
let myString = "Ciao Ciao Ciao".NoWhiteSpace //CiaoCiaoCiao

Answer 8

That is for removing any space that is when you getting text from any text field but if you want to remove space between string you can use
xyz =[xyz.text stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#" " withString:#""];
It will replace empty space with no space and empty field is taken care of by below method:
searchbar.text=[searchbar.text stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet: [NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]];

Answer 9

Use below marco and remove the space.
#define TRIMWHITESPACE(string) [string stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]]
in other file call TRIM :
NSString *strEmail;
strEmail = TRIM(#" this is the test.");
May it will help you...

Answer 10

I strongly suggest placing this somewhere in your project:
extension String {
func trim() -> String {
return self.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(NSCharacterSet.whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet())
}
func trim(withSet: NSCharacterSet) -> String {
return self.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(withSet)
}
}

Answer 11

pStrTemp = [pStrTemp stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];