Attempting to create a function that uses regex matches to return an array of NSRange values to use with a UITextView to allow the user to click through the matched words using animation.
I assume the solution is to break out of the function if there is no regex match. I cannot figure out how to do this where the function requires a NSRange value.
Moreover, when there is no match, the regex function matches does not return nil. Instead, it automatically returns an empty array which appears to make the guard statement useless.
Here is the function:
func rangeOfSearchText(searchString: String, UIText: String) -> [NSRange] {
var matches:[NSTextCheckingResult]?
let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: searchString, options: .caseInsensitive)
matches = regex.matches(in: UIText, options: [], range: NSRange(location: 0, length: UIText.count))
guard let find = matches else {
//return need to find a way to break out of function if nil without returning an NSRange object...
}
var rangeArray:[NSRange] = []
for match in find {
rangeArray.append(match.range(at: 0))
}
return rangeArray
}
let sString = "z"
let longString = "I need a solution."
let test = rangeOfSearchText(searchString: sString, UIText: longString)
The above returns an empty array.
Related
First let me point out... I want to split a String or Substring with any character that is not an alphabet, a number, # or #. That means, I want to split with whitespaces(spaces & line breaks) and special characters or symbols excluding # and #
In Android Java, I am able to achieve this with:
String[] textArr = text.split("[^\\w_##]");
Now, I want to do the same in Swift. I added an extension to String and Substring classes
extension String {}
extension Substring {}
In both extensions, I added a method that returns an array of Substring
func splitWithRegex(by regexStr: String) -> [Substring] {
//let string = self (for String extension) | String(self) (for Substring extension)
let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: regexStr)
let range = NSRange(string.startIndex..., in: string)
return regex.matches(in: string, options: .anchored, range: range)
.map { match -> Substring in
let range = Range(match.range(at: 1), in: string)!
return string[range]
}
}
And when I tried to use it, (Only tested with a Substring, but I also think String will give me the same result)
let textArray = substring.splitWithRegex(by: "[^\\w_##]")
print("substring: \(substring)")
print("textArray: \(textArray)")
This is the out put:
substring: This,is a #random #text written for debugging
textArray: []
Please can Someone help me. I don't know if the problem if from my regex [^\\w_##] or from splitWithRegex method
The main reason why the code doesn't work is range(at: 1) which returns the content of the first captured group, but the pattern does not capture anything.
With just range the regex returns the ranges of the found matches, but I suppose you want the characters between.
To accomplish that you need a dynamic index starting at the first character. In the map closure return the string from the current index to the lowerBound of the found range and set the index to its upperBound. Finally you have to add manually the string from the upperBound of the last match to the end.
The Substring type is a helper type for slicing strings. It should not be used beyond a temporary scope.
extension String {
func splitWithRegex(by regexStr: String) -> [String] {
guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: regexStr) else { return [] }
let range = NSRange(startIndex..., in: self)
var index = startIndex
var array = regex.matches(in: self, range: range)
.map { match -> String in
let range = Range(match.range, in: self)!
let result = self[index..<range.lowerBound]
index = range.upperBound
return String(result)
}
array.append(String(self[index...]))
return array
}
}
let text = "This,is a #random #text written for debugging"
let textArray = text.splitWithRegex(by: "[^\\w_##]")
print(textArray) // ["This", "is", "a", "#random", "#text", "written", "for", "debugging"]
However in macOS 13 and iOS 16 there is a new API quite similar to the java API
let text = "This,is a #random #text written for debugging"
let textArray = Array(text.split(separator: /[^\w_##]/))
print(textArray)
The forward slashes indicate a regex literal
I am struggling to modify captured value with regex.
For example, I wanna change "Hello, he is hero" to "HEllo, HE is HEro" using Regex.
I know there are ways to change this without regex, but it is just an example to show the problem. I actually use the regex instead of just he, but I cannot provide it here. That is why using regex is required.
The code below somehow does not work. Are there any ways to make it work?
"Hello, he is hero".replacingOccurrences(
of: #"(he)"#,
with: "$1".uppercased(), // <- uppercased is not applied
options: .regularExpression
)
You need to use your regex in combination with Range (range(of:)) to find matches and then replace each found range separately
Here is a function as an extension to String that does this by using range(of:) starting from the start of the string and then moving the start index to match from forward to after the last match. The actual replacement is done inside a separate function that is passed as an argument
extension String {
func replace(regex: String, with replace: (Substring) -> String) -> String {
var string = self
var startIndex = self.startIndex
let endIndex = self.endIndex
while let range = string.range(of: regex, options: [.regularExpression] , range: startIndex..<endIndex) {
if range.isEmpty {
startIndex = string.index(startIndex, offsetBy: 1)
if startIndex >= endIndex { break }
continue
}
string.replaceSubrange(range, with: replace(string[range]))
startIndex = range.upperBound
}
return string
}
}
Example where we do an case insensitive search for words starting with "he" and replace each match with the uppercased version
let result = "Hello, he is hero. There he is".replace(regex: #"(?i)\bhe"#) {
$0.uppercased()
}
Output
HEllo, HE is HEro. There HE is
You can try NSRegularExpression. Something like:
import Foundation
var sourceStr = "Hello, he is hero"
let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: "(he)")
let matches = regex.matches(in: sourceStr, range: NSRange(sourceStr.startIndex..., in: sourceStr))
regex.enumerateMatches(in: sourceStr, range: NSRange(sourceStr.startIndex..., in: sourceStr)) { (match, _, _) in
guard let match = match else { return }
guard let range = Range(match.range, in: sourceStr) else { return }
let sub = sourceStr[range]
sourceStr = sourceStr.replacingOccurrences(of: sub, with: sub.uppercased(), options: [], range: range)
}
print(sourceStr)
this is the solution i can provide
var string = "Hello, he is hero"
let occurrence = "he"
string = string.lowercased().replacingOccurrences(
of: occurrence,
with: occurrence.uppercased(),
options: .regularExpression
)
print(string)
I'm bit confused by NSRegularExpression in swift, can any one help me?
task:1 given ("name","john","name of john")
then I should get ["name","john","name of john"]. Here I should avoid the brackets.
task:2 given ("name"," john","name of john")
then I should get ["name","john","name of john"]. Here I should avoid the brackets and extra spaces and finally get array of strings.
task:3 given key = value // comment
then I should get ["key","value","comment"]. Here I should get only strings in the line by avoiding = and //
I have tried below code for task 1 but not passed.
let string = "(name,john,string for user name)"
let pattern = "(?:\\w.*)"
do {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: .caseInsensitive)
let matches = regex.matches(in: string, options: [], range: NSRange(location: 0, length: string.utf16.count))
for match in matches {
if let range = Range(match.range, in: string) {
let name = string[range]
print(name)
}
}
} catch {
print("Regex was bad!")
}
Thanks in advance.
RegEx in Swift
These posts might help you to explore regular expressions in swift:
Does a string match a pattern?
Swift extract regex matches
How can I use String slicing subscripts in Swift 4?
How to use regex with Swift?
Swift 3 - How do I extract captured groups in regular expressions?
How to group search regular expressions using swift?
Task 1 & 2
This expression might help you to match your desired outputs for both Task 1 and 2:
"(\s+)?([a-z\s]+?)(\s+)?"
Based on Rob's advice, you could much reduce the boundaries, such as the char list [a-z\s]. For example, here, we can also use:
"(\s+)?(.*?)(\s+)?"
or
"(\s+)?(.+?)(\s+)?"
to simply pass everything in between two " and/or space.
RegEx
If this wasn't your desired expression, you can modify/change your expressions in regex101.com.
RegEx Circuit
You can also visualize your expressions in jex.im:
JavaScript Demo
const regex = /"(\s+)?([a-z\s]+?)(\s+)?"/gm;
const str = `"name","john","name of john"
"name"," john","name of john"
" name "," john","name of john "
" name "," john"," name of john "`;
const subst = `\n$2`;
// The substituted value will be contained in the result variable
const result = str.replace(regex, subst);
console.log('Substitution result: ', result);
Task 3
This expression might help you to design an expression for the third task:
(.*?)([a-z\s]+)(.*?)
const regex = /(.*?)([a-z\s]+)(.*?)/gm;
const str = `key = value // comment
key = value with some text // comment`;
const subst = `$2,`;
// The substituted value will be contained in the result variable
const result = str.replace(regex, subst);
console.log('Substitution result: ', result);
Separate the string by non alpha numeric characters except white spaces. Then trim the elements with white spaces.
extension String {
func words() -> [String] {
return self.components(separatedBy: CharacterSet.alphanumerics.inverted.subtracting(.whitespaces))
.filter({ !$0.isEmpty })
.map({ $0.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespaces) })
}
}
let string1 = "(name,john,string for user name)"
let string2 = "(name, john,name of john)"
let string3 = "key = value // comment"
print(string1.words())//["name", "john", "string for user name"]
print(string2.words())//["name", "john", "name of john"]
print(string3.words())//["key", "value", "comment"]
Here I have done with after understanding all of above comments.
let text = """
Capturing and non-capturing groups are somewhat advanced topics. You’ll encounter examples of capturing and non-capturing groups later on in the tutorial
"""
extension String {
func rex (_ expr : String)->[String] {
return try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: expr, options: [.caseInsensitive])
.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSRange(location: 0, length: self.count))
.map {
String(self[Range($0.range, in: self)!])
}
}
}
let r = text.rex("(?:\\w+-\\w+)") // pass any rex
A single pattern, works for test:1...3, in Swift.
let string =
//"(name,john,string for user name)" //test:1
//#"("name"," john","name of john")"# //test:2
"key = value // comment" //test:3
let pattern = #"(?:\w+)(?:\s+\w+)*"# //Swift 5+ only
//let pattern = "(?:\\w+)(?:\\s+\\w+)*"
do {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern)
let matches = regex.matches(in: string, range: NSRange(0..<string.utf16.count))
let matchingWords = matches.map {
String(string[Range($0.range, in: string)!])
}
print(matchingWords) //(test:3)->["key", "value", "comment"]
} catch {
print("Regex was bad!")
}
Let’s consider:
let string = "(name,José,name is José)"
I’d suggest a regex that looks for strings where:
It’s the substring either after the ( at the start of the full string or after a comma, i.e., look behind assertion of (?<=^\(|,);
It’s the substring that does not contain , within it, i.e., [^,]+?;
It’s the substring that is terminated by either a comma or ) at the end of the full string, i.e., look ahead assertion of (?=,|\)$), and
If you want to have it skip white space before and after the substrings, throw in the \s*+, too.
Thus:
let pattern = #"(?<=^\(|,)\s*+([^,]+?)\s*+(?=,|\)$)"#
let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern)
regex.enumerateMatches(in: string, range: NSRange(string.startIndex..., in: string)) { match, _, _ in
if let nsRange = match?.range(at: 1), let range = Range(nsRange, in: string) {
let substring = String(string[range])
// do something with `substring` here
}
}
Note, I’m using the Swift 5 extended string delimiters (starting with #" and ending with "#) so that I don’t have to escape my backslashes within the string. If you’re using Swift 4 or earlier, you’ll want to escape those back slashes:
let pattern = "(?<=^\\(|,)\\s*+([^,]+?)\\s*+(?=,|\\)$)"
How to check whether a WHOLE string can be matches to regex? In Java is method String.matches(regex)
You need to use anchors, ^ (start of string anchor) and $ (end of string anchor), with range(of:options:range:locale:), passing the .regularExpression option:
import Foundation
let phoneNumber = "123-456-789"
let result = phoneNumber.range(of: "^\\d{3}-\\d{3}-\\d{3}$", options: .regularExpression) != nil
print(result)
Or, you may pass an array of options, [.regularExpression, .anchored], where .anchored will anchor the pattern at the start of the string only, and you will be able to omit ^, but still, $ will be required to anchor at the string end:
let result = phoneNumber.range(of: "\\d{3}-\\d{3}-\\d{3}$", options: [.regularExpression, .anchored]) != nil
See the online Swift demo
Also, using NSPredicate with MATCHES is an alternative here:
The left hand expression equals the right hand expression using a regex-style comparison according to ICU v3 (for more details see the ICU User Guide for Regular Expressions).
MATCHES actually anchors the regex match both at the start and end of the string (note this might not work in all Swift 3 builds):
let pattern = "\\d{3}-\\d{3}-\\d{3}"
let predicate = NSPredicate(format: "self MATCHES [c] %#", pattern)
let result = predicate.evaluate(with: "123-456-789")
What you are looking for is range(of:options:range:locale:) then you can then compare the result of range(of:option:) with whole range of comparing string..
Example:
let phoneNumber = "(999) 555-1111"
let wholeRange = phoneNumber.startIndex..<phoneNumber.endIndex
if let match = phoneNumber.range(of: "\\(?\\d{3}\\)?\\s\\d{3}-\\d{4}", options: .regularExpression), wholeRange == match {
print("Valid number")
}
else {
print("Invalid number")
}
//Valid number
Edit: You can also use NSPredicate and compare your string with evaluate(with:) method of its.
let pattern = "^\\(?\\d{3}\\)?\\s\\d{3}-\\d{4}$"
let predicate = NSPredicate(format: "self MATCHES [c] %#", pattern)
if predicate.evaluate(with: "(888) 555-1111") {
print("Valid")
}
else {
print("Invalid")
}
Swift extract regex matches
with little bit of edit
import Foundation
func matches(for regex: String, in text: String) -> Bool {
do {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex)
let nsString = text as NSString
let results = regex.matches(in: text, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: nsString.length))
return !results.isEmpty
} catch let error {
print("invalid regex: \(error.localizedDescription)")
return false
}
}
Example usage from link above:
let string = "19320"
let matched = matches(for: "^[1-9]\\d*$", in: string)
print(matched) // will match
let string = "a19320"
let matched = matches(for: "^[1-9]\\d*$", in: string)
print(matched) // will not match
I have a bunch of NSRegularExpression and I want to run it once. Anyone knows how to do it ?
For the moment I do it in a .forEach, for performance reasons I do not think this is the best idea
Each NSRegularExpression needs to match a different pattern, after the matching I need to deal with each different kind of match. As example if I match with the first regex in my array I need to make something different from the second etc...
let test: String = "Stuff"
let range: NSRange = // a range
var regexes = [NSRegularExpression] = // all of my regexes
regexes.forEach { $0.matches(in: text, options: [], range: range) }
Thanks for you help
You may be able to evaluate several regular expressions as one if you concatenate them using capture groups and an OR expressions.
If you want to search for: language, Objective-C and Swift strings you should use a pattern like this: (language)|(Objective-C)|(Swift). Each capture group has an order number, so if language is found in the source string the match object provides the index number.
You can used the code in this playground sample:
import Foundation
let sourceString: String = "Swift is a great language to program, but don't forget Objective-C."
let expresions = [ "language", // Expression 0
"Objective-C", // Expression 1
"Swift" // Expression 2
]
let pattern = expresions
.map { "(\($0))" }
.joined(separator: "|") // pattern is defined as : (language)|(Objective-C)|(Swift)
let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: [])
let matches = regex?.matches(in: sourceString, options: [],
range: NSRange(location: 0, length: sourceString.utf16.count))
let results = matches?.map({ (match) -> (Int, String) in // Array of type (Int: String) which
// represents index of expression and
// string capture
let index = (1...match.numberOfRanges-1) // Go through all ranges to test which one was used
.map{ Range(match.range(at: $0), in: sourceString) != nil ? $0 : nil }
.compactMap { $0 }.first! // Previous map return array with nils and just one Int
// with the correct position, lets apply compactMap to
// get just this number
let foundString = String(sourceString[Range(match.range(at: 0), in: sourceString)!])
let position = match.range(at: 0).location
let niceReponse = "\(foundString) [position: \(position)]"
return (index - 1, niceReponse) // Let's substract 1 to index in order to match zero based array index
})
print("Matches: \(results?.count ?? 0)\n")
results?.forEach({ result in
print("Group \(result.0): \(result.1)")
})
If you run it the result is:
How many matches: 3
Expression 2: Swift [position: 0]
Expression 0: language [position: 17]
Expression 1: Objective-C [position: 55]
I hope I understood correctly your question and this code helps you.