In a TextView the user can insert text and images, like a notes. To save the whole TextView content in the database (Realm), I replaced the image itself for a pattern "[image]imageName[/image]", so when I load back this data to the TextView, I want to replace back this pattern for the images. I made this function:
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: txtNote.text)
let range = NSRange(location: 0, length: attributedString.string.utf16.count)
let regex = NSRegularExpression("[image](.*?)[/image]")
for match in regex.matches(in: attributedString.string, options: [], range: range) {
if let rangeForImageName = Range(match.range(at: 1), in: attributedString.string){
let imageName = String(attributedString.string[rangeForImageName])
if let image = loadImage(named: imageName) {
let attachment = NSTextAttachment()
attachment.image = image
let oldWidth = attachment.image!.size.width;
let scaleFactor = (oldWidth / (txtNote.frame.size.width - 10))
attachment.image = UIImage(cgImage: attachment.image!.cgImage!, scale: scaleFactor, orientation: .up)
let attString = NSAttributedString(attachment: attachment)
txtNote.textStorage.insert(attString, at: txtNote.selectedRange.location)
} else {
print("Image not found")
}
}
}
I also have this extension to avoid a try catch in the function above:
extension NSRegularExpression {
convenience init(_ pattern: String) {
do {
try self.init(pattern: pattern)
} catch {
preconditionFailure("Illegal regular expression: \(pattern).")
}
}
}
The example that I'm running, the content on attributedString:
Like Gorillaz :D
[image]4397ACA6-ADDC-4977-8D67-9FF44F10384A.jpeg[/image]
[image]9BE22CA8-9C6C-4FF9-B46F-D8AF33703061.jpeg[/image]

Etc.{
}
It should be 2 matches, and the image names should be: "4397ACA6-ADDC-4977-8D67-9FF44F10384A.jpeg" and "9BE22CA8-9C6C-4FF9-B46F-D8AF33703061.jpeg".
But my function is returning 14 matches and the image names like: "k", "ll", "", "]4397ACA6-ADDC-4977-8D67-9FF44F10384A.jp", "[", etc.
Any idea abou what I'm doing wrong? I've been research for some error like this unsuccessfully all day long.
The [image] and [/image] form character classes that match single chars, the former matching i, m, a, g or e and the latter also matching /.
If you want to treat a part of a regex as a literal substring, you may "quote" it with \Q...\E operators:
let regex = NSRegularExpression("\\Q[image]\\E(.*?)\\Q[/image]\\E")
If you are sure what you are doing, escape the brackets manually, "\\[image\\](.*?)\\[/image\\]".
See Regular Expression Metacharacters table:
\Q Quotes all following characters until \E.
\E Terminates a \Q ... \E quoted sequence.
"Quotes" means "adds backslashes before the special chars to make them match as literal chars" here.
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'm very, very new to Swift and admittedly struggling with some of its constructs. I have to work with a text file and do many manipulations - here's an example to illustrate the point:
let's say I have a text like this (multi line)
Mary had a little lamb
#name: a name
#summary: a paragraph of text
{{something}}
a whole bunch of multi-line text
x----------------x
I want to be able to do simple things like find the location of #name, then split it to get the name and so on. I've done this in javascript and it was pretty simple with the use of substr and the regex matches.
In swift, which is supposed to be swift and easy and what not, I'm finding this exceedingly confusing.
Can someone help with how one might do
Find the location of the start of a substring
Extract all text between from the end of a substring to the end of text
Sorry if this is trivial - but the Apple documentation feels very complicated, and lots of examples are years old. I can't also seem to find easy application of regex.
You can use string range(of: String) method to find the range of your string, get its upperBound and search for the end of the line from that position of the string:
Playground testing:
let sentence = """
Mary had a little lamb
#name: a name
#summary: a paragraph of text
{{something}}
a whole bunch of multi-line text
"""
if let start = sentence.range(of: "#name:")?.upperBound,
let end = sentence[start...].range(of: "\n")?.lowerBound {
let substring = sentence[start..<end]
print("name:", substring)
}
If you need to get the string from there to the end of the string you can use PartialRangeFrom:
if let start = sentence.range(of: "#summary:")?.upperBound {
let substring = sentence[start...]
print("summary:", substring)
}
If you find yourself using that a lot you can extend StringProtocol and create your own method:
extension StringProtocol {
func substring<S:StringProtocol,T:StringProtocol>(between start: S, and end: T, options: String.CompareOptions = []) -> SubSequence? {
guard
let lower = range(of: start, options: options)?.upperBound,
let upper = self[lower...].range(of: end, options: options)?.lowerBound
else { return nil }
return self[lower..<upper]
}
func substring<S:StringProtocol>(after string: S, options: String.CompareOptions = []) -> SubSequence? {
guard
let lower = range(of: string, options: options)?.upperBound else { return nil }
return self[lower...]
}
}
Usage:
let name = sentence.substring(between: "#name:", and: "\n") // " a name"
let sumary = sentence.substring(after: "#summary:") // " a paragraph of text\n\n{{something}}\n\na whole bunch of multi-line text"
You can use regular expressions as well:
let name = sentence.substring(between: "#\\w+:", and: "\\n", options: .regularExpression) // " a name"
You can do this with range() and distance():
let str = "Example string"
let range = str.range(of: "amp")!
print(str.distance(from: str.startIndex, to: range.lowerBound)) // 2
let lastStr = str[range.upperBound...]
print(lastStr) // "le 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 can I substring the next 2 characters of a string after a certian character. For example I have a strings str1 = "12:34" and other like str2 = "12:345. I want to get the next 2 characters after : the colons.
I want a same code that will work for str1 and str2.
Swift's substring is complicated:
let str = "12:345"
if let range = str.range(of: ":") {
let startIndex = str.index(range.lowerBound, offsetBy: 1)
let endIndex = str.index(startIndex, offsetBy: 2)
print(str[startIndex..<endIndex])
}
It is very easy to use str.index() method as shown in #MikeHenderson's answer, but an alternative to that, without using that method is iterating through the string's characters and creating a new string for holding the first two characters after the ":", like so:
var string1="12:458676"
var nr=0
var newString=""
for c in string1.characters{
if nr>0{
newString+=String(c)
nr-=1
}
if c==":" {nr=2}
}
print(newString) // prints 45
Hope this helps!
A possible solution is Regular Expression,
The pattern checks for a colon followed by two digits and captures the two digits:
let string = "12:34"
let pattern = ":(\\d{2})"
let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: [])
if let match = regex.firstMatch(in: string, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: string.characters.count)) {
print((string as NSString).substring(with: match.rangeAt(1)))
}
I'm trying to pull out the parts of a string that are in quotation marks, i.e. in "Rouge One" is an awesome movie I want to extract Rouge One.
This is what I have so far but can't figure out where to go from here: I create a copy of the text so that I can remove the first quotation mark so that I can get the index of the second.
if text.contains("\"") {
guard let firstQuoteMarkIndex = text.range(of: "\"") else {return}
var textCopy = text
let textWithoutFirstQuoteMark = textCopy.replacingCharacters(in: firstQuoteMarkIndex, with: "")
let secondQuoteMarkIndex = textCopy.range(of: "\"")
let stringBetweenQuotes = text.substring(with: Range(start: firstQuoteMarkIndex, end: secondQuoteMarkIndex))
}
There is no need to create copies or to replace substrings for this task.
Here is a possible approach:
Use text.range(of: "\"") to find the first quotation mark.
Use text.range(of: "\"", range:...) to find the second quotation mark, i.e. the first one after the range found in step 1.
Extract the substring between the two ranges.
Example:
let text = " \"Rouge One\" is an awesome movie"
if let r1 = text.range(of: "\""),
let r2 = text.range(of: "\"", range: r1.upperBound..<text.endIndex) {
let stringBetweenQuotes = text.substring(with: r1.upperBound..<r2.lowerBound)
print(stringBetweenQuotes) // "Rouge One"
}
Another option is a regular expression search with "positive lookbehind" and "positive lookahead" patterns:
if let range = text.range(of: "(?<=\\\").*?(?=\\\")", options: .regularExpression) {
let stringBetweenQuotes = text.substring(with: range)
print(stringBetweenQuotes)
}
var rouge = "\"Rouge One\" is an awesome movie"
var separated = rouge.components(separatedBy: "\"") // ["", "Rouge One", " is an awesome movie"]
separated.dropFirst().first
I would use .components(separatedBy:)
let stringArray = text.components(separatedBy: "\"")
Check if stringArray count is > 2 (there is at least 2 quotes).
Check if stringArray count is odd, aka count % 2 == 1.
If it is odd, all the even indices are between 2 quotes and they are what you want.
If it is even, all the even indices - 1 are between 2 quotes (the last one doesn't have an end quote).
This will allow you to also capture multiple sets of quoted strings, like:
"Rogue One" is a "Star Wars" movie.
Another option is to use regular expressions to find pairs of quotes:
let pattern = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: "\\\"([^\"]+)\\\"")
// Small helper methods making it easier to work with enumerateMatches(in:...)
extension String {
subscript(utf16Range range: Range<Int>) -> String? {
get {
let start = utf16.index(utf16.startIndex, offsetBy: range.lowerBound)
let end = utf16.index(utf16.startIndex, offsetBy: range.upperBound)
return String(utf16[start..<end])
}
}
var fullUTF16Range: NSRange {
return NSRange(location: 0, length: utf16.count)
}
}
// Loop through *all* quoted substrings in the original string.
let str = "\"Rogue One\" is an awesome movie"
pattern.enumerateMatches(in: str, range: str.fullUTF16Range) { (result, flags, stop) in
// rangeAt(1) is the range representing the characters in the 1st
// capture group of the regular expression: ([^"]+)
if let result = result, let range = result.rangeAt(1).toRange() {
print("This was in quotes: \(str[utf16Range: range] ?? "<bad range>")")
}
}