CamelCase to underscores and back in Objective-C - objective-c

Question

I'm looking for a simple, efficient way to convert strings in CamelCase to underscore notation (i.e., MyClassName -> my_class_name) and back again in Objective C.
My current solution involves lots of rangeOfString, characterAtIndex, and replaceCharactersInRange operations on NSMutableStrings, and is just plain ugly as hell :) It seems that there must be a better solution, but I'm not sure what it is.
I'd rather not import a regex library just for this one use case, though that is an option if all else fails.

Answer 1

Chris's suggestion of RegexKitLite is good. It's an excellent toolkit, but this could be done pretty easily with NSScanner. Use -scanCharactersFromSet:intoString: alternating between +uppercaseLetterCharacterSet and +lowercaseLetterCharacterSet. For going back, you'd use -scanUpToCharactersFromSet: instead, using a character set with just an underscore in it.

Answer 2

How about these:
NSString *MyCamelCaseToUnderscores(NSString *input) {
NSMutableString *output = [NSMutableString string];
NSCharacterSet *uppercase = [NSCharacterSet uppercaseLetterCharacterSet];
for (NSInteger idx = 0; idx < [input length]; idx += 1) {
unichar c = [input characterAtIndex:idx];
if ([uppercase characterIsMember:c]) {
[output appendFormat:#"_%#", [[NSString stringWithCharacters:&c length:1] lowercaseString]];
} else {
[output appendFormat:#"%C", c];
}
}
return output;
}
NSString *MyUnderscoresToCamelCase(NSString *underscores) {
NSMutableString *output = [NSMutableString string];
BOOL makeNextCharacterUpperCase = NO;
for (NSInteger idx = 0; idx < [underscores length]; idx += 1) {
unichar c = [underscores characterAtIndex:idx];
if (c == '_') {
makeNextCharacterUpperCase = YES;
} else if (makeNextCharacterUpperCase) {
[output appendString:[[NSString stringWithCharacters:&c length:1] uppercaseString]];
makeNextCharacterUpperCase = NO;
} else {
[output appendFormat:#"%C", c];
}
}
return output;
}
Some drawbacks are that they do use temporary strings to convert between upper and lower case, and they don't have any logic for acronyms, so myURL will result in my_u_r_l.

Answer 3

Try this magic:
NSString* camelCaseString = #"myBundleVersion";
NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:#"(?<=[a-z])([A-Z])|([A-Z])(?=[a-z])" options:0 error:nil];
NSString *underscoreString = [[regex stringByReplacingMatchesInString:camelCaseString options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, camelCaseString.length) withTemplate:#"_$1$2"] lowercaseString];
NSLog(#"%#", underscoreString);
Output: my_bundle_version

Answer 4

If your concern is just the visibility of your code, you could make a category for NSString using the methods you've designed already. That way, you only see the ugly mess once. ;)
For instance:
#interface NSString(Conversions) {
- (NSString *)asCamelCase;
- (NSString *)asUnderscored;
}
#implementation NSString(Conversions) {
- (NSString *)asCamelCase {
// whatever you came up with
}
- (NSString *)asUnderscored {
// whatever you came up with
}
}
EDIT: After a quick Google search, I couldn't find any way of doing this, even in plain C. However, I did find a framework that could be useful. It's called RegexKitLite. It uses the built-in ICU library, so it only adds about 20K to the final binary.

Answer 5

Here's my implementation of Rob's answer:
#implementation NSString (CamelCaseConversion)
// Convert a camel case string into a dased word sparated string.
// In case of scanning error, return nil.
// Camel case string must not start with a capital.
- (NSString *)fromCamelCaseToDashed {
NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:self];
scanner.caseSensitive = YES;
NSString *builder = [NSString string];
NSString *buffer = nil;
NSUInteger lastScanLocation = 0;
while ([scanner isAtEnd] == NO) {
if ([scanner scanCharactersFromSet:[NSCharacterSet lowercaseLetterCharacterSet] intoString:&buffer]) {
builder = [builder stringByAppendingString:buffer];
if ([scanner scanCharactersFromSet:[NSCharacterSet uppercaseLetterCharacterSet] intoString:&buffer]) {
builder = [builder stringByAppendingString:#"-"];
builder = [builder stringByAppendingString:[buffer lowercaseString]];
}
}
// If the scanner location has not moved, there's a problem somewhere.
if (lastScanLocation == scanner.scanLocation) return nil;
lastScanLocation = scanner.scanLocation;
}
return builder;
}
#end

Answer 6

Here's yet another version based on all the above. This version handles additional forms. In particular, tested with the following:
camelCase => camel_case
camelCaseWord => camel_case_word
camelURL => camel_url
camelURLCase => camel_url_case
CamelCase => camel_case
Here goes
- (NSString *)fromCamelCaseToDashed3 {
NSMutableString *output = [NSMutableString string];
NSCharacterSet *uppercase = [NSCharacterSet uppercaseLetterCharacterSet];
BOOL previousCharacterWasUppercase = FALSE;
BOOL currentCharacterIsUppercase = FALSE;
unichar currentChar = 0;
unichar previousChar = 0;
for (NSInteger idx = 0; idx < [self length]; idx += 1) {
previousChar = currentChar;
currentChar = [self characterAtIndex:idx];
previousCharacterWasUppercase = currentCharacterIsUppercase;
currentCharacterIsUppercase = [uppercase characterIsMember:currentChar];
if (!previousCharacterWasUppercase && currentCharacterIsUppercase && idx > 0) {
// insert an _ between the characters
[output appendString:#"_"];
} else if (previousCharacterWasUppercase && !currentCharacterIsUppercase) {
// insert an _ before the previous character
// insert an _ before the last character in the string
if ([output length] > 1) {
unichar charTwoBack = [output characterAtIndex:[output length]-2];
if (charTwoBack != '_') {
[output insertString:#"_" atIndex:[output length]-1];
}
}
}
// Append the current character lowercase
[output appendString:[[NSString stringWithCharacters:&currentChar length:1] lowercaseString]];
}
return output;
}

Answer 7

If you are concerned with the speed of your code you probably want to write a more performant version of the code:
- (nonnull NSString *)camelCaseToSnakeCaseString {
if ([self length] == 0) {
return #"";
}
NSMutableString *output = [NSMutableString string];
NSCharacterSet *digitSet = [NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet];
NSCharacterSet *uppercaseSet = [NSCharacterSet uppercaseLetterCharacterSet];
NSCharacterSet *lowercaseSet = [NSCharacterSet lowercaseLetterCharacterSet];
for (NSInteger idx = 0; idx < [self length]; idx += 1) {
unichar c = [self characterAtIndex:idx];
// if it's the last one then just append lowercase of character
if (idx == [self length] - 1) {
if ([uppercaseSet characterIsMember:c]) {
[output appendFormat:#"%#", [[NSString stringWithCharacters:&c length:1] lowercaseString]];
}
else {
[output appendFormat:#"%C", c];
}
continue;
}
unichar nextC = [self characterAtIndex:(idx+1)];
// this logic finds the boundaries between lowercase/uppercase/digits and lets the string be split accordingly.
if ([lowercaseSet characterIsMember:c] && [uppercaseSet characterIsMember:nextC]) {
[output appendFormat:#"%#_", [[NSString stringWithCharacters:&c length:1] lowercaseString]];
}
else if ([lowercaseSet characterIsMember:c] && [digitSet characterIsMember:nextC]) {
[output appendFormat:#"%#_", [[NSString stringWithCharacters:&c length:1] lowercaseString]];
}
else if ([digitSet characterIsMember:c] && [uppercaseSet characterIsMember:nextC]) {
[output appendFormat:#"%#_", [[NSString stringWithCharacters:&c length:1] lowercaseString]];
}
else {
// Append lowercase of character
if ([uppercaseSet characterIsMember:c]) {
[output appendFormat:#"%#", [[NSString stringWithCharacters:&c length:1] lowercaseString]];
}
else {
[output appendFormat:#"%C", c];
}
}
}
return output;
}

Answer 8

I have combined the answers found here into my refactoring library, es_ios_utils. See NSCategories.h:
#property(nonatomic, readonly) NSString *asCamelCaseFromUnderscores;
#property(nonatomic, readonly) NSString *asUnderscoresFromCamelCase;
Usage:
#"my_string".asCamelCaseFromUnderscores
yields #"myString"
Please push improvements!

Answer 9

I happened upon this question looking for a way to convert Camel Case to a spaced, user displayable string. Here is my solution which worked better than replacing #"_" with #" "
- (NSString *)fromCamelCaseToSpaced:(NSString*)input {
NSCharacterSet* lower = [NSCharacterSet lowercaseLetterCharacterSet];
NSCharacterSet* upper = [NSCharacterSet uppercaseLetterCharacterSet];
for (int i = 1; i < input.length; i++) {
if ([upper characterIsMember:[input characterAtIndex:i]] &&
[lower characterIsMember:[input characterAtIndex:i-1]])
{
NSString* soFar = [input substringToIndex:i];
NSString* left = [input substringFromIndex:i];
return [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%# %#", soFar, [self fromCamelCaseToSpaced:left]];
}
}
return input;
}

Answer 10

OK guys. Here is an all regex answer, which I consider the only true way:
Given:
NSString *MYSTRING = "foo_bar";
NSRegularExpression *_toCamelCase = [NSRegularExpression
regularExpressionWithPattern:#"(_)([a-z])"
options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive error:&error];
NSString *camelCaseAttribute = [_toCamelCase
stringByReplacingMatchesInString:MYSTRING options:0
range:NSMakeRange(0, attribute.length)
withTemplate:#"\\U$2"];
Yields fooBar.
Conversely:
NSString *MYSTRING = "fooBar";
NSRegularExpression *camelCaseTo_ = [NSRegularExpression
regularExpressionWithPattern:#"([A-Z])"
options:0 error:&error];
NSString *underscoreParsedAttribute = [camelCaseTo_
stringByReplacingMatchesInString:MYSTRING
options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, attribute.length)
withTemplate:#"_$1"];
underscoreParsedAttribute = [underscoreParsedAttribute lowercaseString];
Yields: foo_bar.
\U$2 replaces second capture group with upper-case version of itself :D
\L$1 however, oddly, does not replace the first capture group with a lower-case version of itself :( Not sure why, it should work. :/