As the title said, I need to format a string of text in format like: "HELLO, WORLD. HOW ARE YOU?" into "Hello, world. How are you?", is there any standard method for doing this in iOS? Or is there any sample code ?
Thanks!
I don't know standard method to do this, and I don't think there is one.
But the NSString provides methods such : -(NSString *)capitalizedString; which returns a new string, with the first character of each word in upper case. After breaking correctly your string you could use it. Also think of getting a string in lower case using : -(NSString *)lowercaseString.
There is no direct way to capitalize the first characters of sentences in a paragraph. NSString just has a method capitalizedString which capitalizes each and every word. You have to create your own logic to achieve this. You can try the following code.
- (NSString *)captilizeParagraph:(NSString *)paragraph {
if ([paragraph length] == 0) return paragraph;
NSArray *sentences = [paragraph componentsSeparatedByString:#". "];
NSMutableArray *capitalizedSentences = [NSMutableArray array];
for (NSString *sentence in sentences) {
sentence = [sentence lowercaseString];
sentence = [sentence stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0,1) withString:[[sentence substringToIndex:1] uppercaseString]];
[capitalizedSentences addObject:sentence];
}
NSString *capitalizedParagrah = [capitalizedSentences componentsJoinedByString:#". "];
return capitalizedParagrah;
}
Note: The above code assumes that all the sentences in the paragraph ends with characters ". " (a dot and a space) except the last sentence(it can end with any character). If a sentence ends with some other characters like "? " or "! ", then this method will return a not-fully-formatted string.
-(NSString *)normalizeString{
__block NSString *string = [self lowercaseString];
string = [string stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0, 1) withString:[[string substringToIndex:1] uppercaseString]];
NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:#"[\\p{P}-[,]]" options:0 error:nil];
[regex enumerateMatchesInString:string options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, string.length) usingBlock:^(NSTextCheckingResult *result, NSMatchingFlags flags, BOOL *stop) {
if(result.range.location + 2 < string.length) string = [string stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(result.range.location + 2, 1) withString:[[self substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(result.range.location + 2, 1)] uppercaseString]];
}];
return string;
}
Assuming that 2 characters after the punctuation is the first character of the next sentence, this works.
Related
Hi im trying to remove som HTML string from a web response. I want to remove <pre><a style="" name="output-line-1">1</a>, were the who instances of number "1"varies, but is always a digit. but how do i write the regex method for removing this? Below is what i have got so far:
-(NSString *)stringByStrippingHTML:(NSString*)str
{
NSRange r;
while ((r = [str rangeOfString:#"/^<pre><a style=\"\"name=\"output-line-([0-9])\">([0-9])</a>" options:NSRegularExpressionSearch]).location != NSNotFound){
str = [str stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:r withString:#""];
}
}
Basically I want to remove a substring with random number in it... In some instances of the substring the 1 is replaced, so that any similar string gets acknowledged, for example it could be output-line-999. How do i combine the range of string so i can both describe the string and specify to find any similar string with any number?
I want to remove both the HTML and the numbers.
This regular expression should work:
[str rangeOfString:#"<pre><a style=\"\" name=\"output-line-[0-9]+\">[0-9]+</a>" options:NSRegularExpressionSearch];
I thnk the problem is that there ins't a space before name in your reg expression
Using your original while loop, you can:
-(NSString *)stringByStrippingHTML:(NSString*)str
{
NSRange r;
while ((r = [str rangeOfString:#"<pre><a style=\"\" name=\"output-line-[0-9]+\">[0-9]+</a>" options:NSRegularExpressionSearch]).location != NSNotFound)
{
str = [str stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:r withString:#""];
}
}
Or you can use NSRegularExpression:
NSMutableString *input = ...
NSError *error;
NSRegularExpression *regex;
regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:#"<pre><a style=\"\" name=\"output-line-[0-9]+\">[0-9]+</a>"
options:0
error:&error];
if (error)
{
NSLog(#"error=%#",error);
return;
}
[regex replaceMatchesInString:input
options:0
range:NSMakeRange(0, [input length])
withTemplate:#""];
what is the best way to get and replace specific words in string ?
for example I have
NSString * currentString = #"one {two}, thing {thing} good";
now I need find each {currentWord}
and apply function for it
[self replaceWord:currentWord]
then replace currentWord with result from function
-(NSString*)replaceWord:(NSString*)currentWord;
The following example shows how you can use NSRegularExpression and enumerateMatchesInString to accomplish the task. I have just used uppercaseString as function that replaces a word, but you can use your replaceWord method as well:
EDIT: The first version of my answer did not work correctly if the replaced words are
shorter or longer as the original words (thanks to Fabian Kreiser for noting that!) .
Now it should work correctly in all cases.
NSString *currentString = #"one {two}, thing {thing} good";
// Regular expression to find "word characters" enclosed by {...}:
NSRegularExpression *regex;
regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:#"\\{(\\w+)\\}"
options:0
error:NULL];
NSMutableString *modifiedString = [currentString mutableCopy];
__block int offset = 0;
[regex enumerateMatchesInString:currentString
options:0
range:NSMakeRange(0, [currentString length])
usingBlock:^(NSTextCheckingResult *result, NSMatchingFlags flags, BOOL *stop) {
// range = location of the regex capture group "(\\w+)" in currentString:
NSRange range = [result rangeAtIndex:1];
// Adjust location for modifiedString:
range.location += offset;
// Get old word:
NSString *oldWord = [modifiedString substringWithRange:range];
// Compute new word:
// In your case, that would be
// NSString *newWord = [self replaceWord:oldWord];
NSString *newWord = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"--- %# ---", [oldWord uppercaseString] ];
// Replace new word in modifiedString:
[modifiedString replaceCharactersInRange:range withString:newWord];
// Update offset:
offset += [newWord length] - [oldWord length];
}
];
NSLog(#"%#", modifiedString);
Output:
one {--- TWO ---}, thing {--- THING ---} good
I have a NSString category I am working on to perform character substitution similar to PHP's strtr. This method takes a string and replaces every occurrence of each character in fromString and replaces it with the character in toString with the same index. I have a working method but it is not very performant and would like to make it quicker and able to handle megabytes of data.
Edit (for clarity):
stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:withString:options:range: will not work. I have to take a string like "ABC" and after replacing "A" with "B" and "B" with "A" end up with "BAC". Successive invocations of stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:withString:options:range: would make a string like "AAC" which would be incorrect.
Suggestions would be great, sample code would be even better!
Code:
- (NSString *)stringBySubstitutingCharactersFromString:(NSString *)fromString
toString:(NSString *)toString;
{
NSMutableString *substitutedString = [self mutableCopy];
NSString *aCharacterString;
NSUInteger characterIndex
, stringLength = substitutedString.length;
for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < stringLength; ++i) {
aCharacterString = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%C", [substitutedString characterAtIndex:i]];
characterIndex = [fromString rangeOfString:aCharacterString].location;
if (characterIndex == NSNotFound) continue;
[substitutedString replaceCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(i, 1)
withString:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%C", [toString characterAtIndex:characterIndex]]];
}
return substitutedString;
}
Also this code is executed after every change to text in a text view. It is passed the entire string every time. I know that there is a better way to do it, but I do not know how. Any suggestions for this would be most certainly appreciated!
You can make that kind of string substitution with NSRegularExpression either modifying an mutable string or creating a new immutable string. It will work with any two strings to substitute (even if they are more than one symbol) but you will need to escape any character that means something in a regular expression (like \ [ ( . * ? + etc).
The pattern finds either of the two substrings with the optional "anything" between and than replaces them with the two substrings with each other preserving the optional string between them.
// These string can be of any length
NSString *firstString = #"Axa";
NSString *secondString = #"By";
// Escaping of characters used in regular expressions has NOT been done here
NSString *pattern = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"(%#|%#)(.*?)(%#|%#)", firstString, secondString, firstString, secondString];
NSString *string = #"AxaByCAxaCBy";
NSError *error = NULL;
NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:pattern
options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive
error:&error];
if (error) {
// Insert error handling here...
}
NSString *modifiedString = [regex stringByReplacingMatchesInString:string
options:0
range:NSMakeRange(0, [string length])
withTemplate:#"$3$2$1"];
NSLog(#"Before:\t%#", string); // AxaByCAxaCBy
NSLog(#"After: \t%#", modifiedString); // ByAxaCByCAxa
I am trying to replace all characters except last 4 in a String with *'s.
In objective-c there is a method in NSString class replaceStringWithCharactersInRange: withString: where I would give it range (0,[string length]-4) ) with string #"*". This is what it does: 123456789ABCD is modified to *ABCD while I am looking to make ********ABCD.
I understand that it replaced range I specified with string object. How to accomplish this ?
NSError *error;
NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:#"\\d" options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive error:&error];
NSString *newString = [regex stringByReplacingMatchesInString:string options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, [string length]) withTemplate:#"*"];
This looks like a simple problem... get the first part string and return it with the last four characters appended to it.
Here is a function that returns the needed string :
-(NSString *)neededStringWithString:(NSString *)aString {
// if the string has less than or 4 characters, return nil
if([aString length] <= 4) {
return nil;
}
NSUInteger countOfCharToReplace = [aString length] - 4;
NSString *firstPart = #"*";
while(--countOfCharToReplace) {
firstPart = [firstPart stringByAppendingString:#"*"];
}
// range for the last four
NSRange lastFourRange = NSMakeRange([aString length] - 4, 4);
// return the combined string
return [firstPart stringByAppendingString:
[aString substringWithRange:lastFourRange]];
}
The most unintuitive part in Cocoa is creating the repeating stars without some kind of awkward looping. stringByPaddingToLength:withString:startingAtIndex: allows you to create a repeating string of any length you like, so once you have that, here's a simple solution:
NSInteger starUpTo = [string length] - 4;
if (starUpTo > 0) {
NSString *stars = [#"" stringByPaddingToLength:starUpTo withString:#"*" startingAtIndex:0];
return [string stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0, starUpTo) withString:stars];
} else {
return string;
}
I'm not sure why the accepted answer was accepted, since it only works if everything but last 4 is a digit. Here's a simple way:
NSMutableString * str1 = [[NSMutableString alloc]initWithString:#"1234567890ABCD"];
NSRange r = NSMakeRange(0, [str1 length] - 4);
[str1 replaceCharactersInRange:r withString:[[NSString string] stringByPaddingToLength:r.length withString:#"*" startingAtIndex:0]];
NSLog(#"%#",str1);
You could use [theString substringToIndex:[theString length]-4] to get the first part of the string and then combine [theString length]-4 *'s with the second part. Perhaps their is an easier way to do this..
NSMutableString * str1 = [[NSMutableString alloc]initWithString:#"1234567890ABCD"];
[str1 replaceCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0, [str1 length] - 4) withString:#"*"];
NSLog(#"%#",str1);
it works
The regexp didn't work on iOS7, but perhaps this helps:
- (NSString *)encryptString:(NSString *)pass {
NSMutableString *secret = [NSMutableString new];
for (int i=0; i<[pass length]; i++) {
[secret appendString:#"*"];
}
return secret;
}
In your case you should stop replacing the last 4 characters. Bit crude, but gets the job done
I've already found how to capitalize all words of the sentence, but not the first word only.
NSString *txt =#"hi my friends!"
[txt capitalizedString];
I don't want to change to lower case and capitalize the first char. I'd like to capitalize the first word only without change the others.
Here is another go at it:
NSString *txt = #"hi my friends!";
txt = [txt stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0,1) withString:[[txt substringToIndex:1] uppercaseString]];
For Swift language:
txt.replaceRange(txt.startIndex...txt.startIndex, with: String(txt[txt.startIndex]).capitalizedString)
The accepted answer is wrong. First, it is not correct to treat the units of NSString as "characters" in the sense that a user expects. There are surrogate pairs. There are combining sequences. Splitting those will produce incorrect results. Second, it is not necessarily the case that uppercasing the first character produces the same result as capitalizing a word containing that character. Languages can be context-sensitive.
The correct way to do this is to get the frameworks to identify words (and possibly sentences) in the locale-appropriate manner. And also to capitalize in the locale-appropriate manner.
[aMutableString enumerateSubstringsInRange:NSMakeRange(0, [aMutableString length])
options:NSStringEnumerationByWords | NSStringEnumerationLocalized
usingBlock:^(NSString *substring, NSRange substringRange, NSRange enclosingRange, BOOL *stop) {
[aMutableString replaceCharactersInRange:substringRange
withString:[substring capitalizedStringWithLocale:[NSLocale currentLocale]]];
*stop = YES;
}];
It's possible that the first word of a string is not the same as the first word of the first sentence of a string. To identify the first (or each) sentence of the string and then capitalize the first word of that (or those), then surround the above in an outer invocation of -enumerateSubstringsInRange:options:usingBlock: using NSStringEnumerationBySentences | NSStringEnumerationLocalized. In the inner invocation, pass the substringRange provided by the outer invocation as the range argument.
Use
- (NSArray *)componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:(NSCharacterSet *)separator
and capitalize the first object in the array and then use
- (NSString *)componentsJoinedByString:(NSString *)separator
to join them back
pString = [pString
stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0,1)
withString:[[pString substringToIndex:1] capitalizedString]];
you can user with regular expression i have done it's works for me simple you can paste below code
+(NSString*)CaptializeFirstCharacterOfSentence:(NSString*)sentence{
NSMutableString *firstCharacter = [sentence mutableCopy];
NSString *pattern = #"(^|\\.|\\?|\\!)\\s*(\\p{Letter})";
NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:pattern options:0 error:NULL];
[regex enumerateMatchesInString:sentence options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, [sentence length]) usingBlock:^(NSTextCheckingResult *result, NSMatchingFlags flags, BOOL *stop) {
//NSLog(#"%#", result);
NSRange r = [result rangeAtIndex:2];
[firstCharacter replaceCharactersInRange:r withString:[[sentence substringWithRange:r] uppercaseString]];
}];
NSLog(#"%#", firstCharacter);
return firstCharacter;
}
//Call this method
NsString *resultSentence = [UserClass CaptializeFirstCharacterOfSentence:yourTexthere];
An alternative solution in Swift:
var str = "hello"
if count(str) > 0 {
str.splice(String(str.removeAtIndex(str.startIndex)).uppercaseString, atIndex: str.startIndex)
}
For the sake of having options, I'd suggest:
NSString *myString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"this is a string..."];
char *tmpStr = calloc([myString length] + 1,sizeof(char));
[myString getCString:tmpStr maxLength:[myString length] + 1 encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
int sIndex = 0;
/* skip non-alpha characters at beginning of string */
while (!isalpha(tmpStr[sIndex])) {
sIndex++;
}
toupper(tmpStr[sIndex]);
myString = [NSString stringWithCString:tmpStr encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
I'm at work and don't have my Mac to test this on, but if I remember correctly, you couldn't use [myString cStringUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] because it returns a const char *.
In swift you can do it as followed by using this extension:
extension String {
func ucfirst() -> String {
return (self as NSString).stringByReplacingCharactersInRange(NSMakeRange(0, 1), withString: (self as NSString).substringToIndex(1).uppercaseString)
}
}
calling your string like this:
var ucfirstString:String = "test".ucfirst()
I know the question asks specifically for an Objective C answer, however here is a solution for Swift 2.0:
let txt = "hi my friends!"
var sentencecaseString = ""
for (index, character) in txt.characters.enumerate() {
if 0 == index {
sentencecaseString += String(character).uppercaseString
} else {
sentencecaseString.append(character)
}
}
Or as an extension:
func sentencecaseString() -> String {
var sentencecaseString = ""
for (index, character) in self.characters.enumerate() {
if 0 == index {
sentencecaseString += String(character).uppercaseString
} else {
sentencecaseString.append(character)
}
}
return sentencecaseString
}