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 want to extract substrings from a string that match a regex pattern.
So I'm looking for something like this:
func matchesForRegexInText(regex: String!, text: String!) -> [String] {
???
}
So this is what I have:
func matchesForRegexInText(regex: String!, text: String!) -> [String] {
var regex = NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex,
options: nil, error: nil)
var results = regex.matchesInString(text,
options: nil, range: NSMakeRange(0, countElements(text)))
as Array<NSTextCheckingResult>
/// ???
return ...
}
The problem is, that matchesInString delivers me an array of NSTextCheckingResult, where NSTextCheckingResult.range is of type NSRange.
NSRange is incompatible with Range<String.Index>, so it prevents me of using text.substringWithRange(...)
Any idea how to achieve this simple thing in swift without too many lines of code?
Even if the matchesInString() method takes a String as the first argument,
it works internally with NSString, and the range parameter must be given
using the NSString length and not as the Swift string length. Otherwise it will
fail for "extended grapheme clusters" such as "flags".
As of Swift 4 (Xcode 9), the Swift standard
library provides functions to convert between Range<String.Index>
and NSRange.
func matches(for regex: String, in text: String) -> [String] {
do {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex)
let results = regex.matches(in: text,
range: NSRange(text.startIndex..., in: text))
return results.map {
String(text[Range($0.range, in: text)!])
}
} catch let error {
print("invalid regex: \(error.localizedDescription)")
return []
}
}
Example:
let string = "🇩🇪€4€9"
let matched = matches(for: "[0-9]", in: string)
print(matched)
// ["4", "9"]
Note: The forced unwrap Range($0.range, in: text)! is safe because
the NSRange refers to a substring of the given string text.
However, if you want to avoid it then use
return results.flatMap {
Range($0.range, in: text).map { String(text[$0]) }
}
instead.
(Older answer for Swift 3 and earlier:)
So you should convert the given Swift string to an NSString and then extract the
ranges. The result will be converted to a Swift string array automatically.
(The code for Swift 1.2 can be found in the edit history.)
Swift 2 (Xcode 7.3.1) :
func matchesForRegexInText(regex: String, text: String) -> [String] {
do {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: [])
let nsString = text as NSString
let results = regex.matchesInString(text,
options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length))
return results.map { nsString.substringWithRange($0.range)}
} catch let error as NSError {
print("invalid regex: \(error.localizedDescription)")
return []
}
}
Example:
let string = "🇩🇪€4€9"
let matches = matchesForRegexInText("[0-9]", text: string)
print(matches)
// ["4", "9"]
Swift 3 (Xcode 8)
func matches(for regex: String, in text: String) -> [String] {
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.map { nsString.substring(with: $0.range)}
} catch let error {
print("invalid regex: \(error.localizedDescription)")
return []
}
}
Example:
let string = "🇩🇪€4€9"
let matched = matches(for: "[0-9]", in: string)
print(matched)
// ["4", "9"]
My answer builds on top of given answers but makes regex matching more robust by adding additional support:
Returns not only matches but returns also all capturing groups for each match (see examples below)
Instead of returning an empty array, this solution supports optional matches
Avoids do/catch by not printing to the console and makes use of the guard construct
Adds matchingStrings as an extension to String
Swift 4.2
//: Playground - noun: a place where people can play
import Foundation
extension String {
func matchingStrings(regex: String) -> [[String]] {
guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: []) else { return [] }
let nsString = self as NSString
let results = regex.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length))
return results.map { result in
(0..<result.numberOfRanges).map {
result.range(at: $0).location != NSNotFound
? nsString.substring(with: result.range(at: $0))
: ""
}
}
}
}
"prefix12 aaa3 prefix45".matchingStrings(regex: "fix([0-9])([0-9])")
// Prints: [["fix12", "1", "2"], ["fix45", "4", "5"]]
"prefix12".matchingStrings(regex: "(?:prefix)?([0-9]+)")
// Prints: [["prefix12", "12"]]
"12".matchingStrings(regex: "(?:prefix)?([0-9]+)")
// Prints: [["12", "12"]], other answers return an empty array here
// Safely accessing the capture of the first match (if any):
let number = "prefix12suffix".matchingStrings(regex: "fix([0-9]+)su").first?[1]
// Prints: Optional("12")
Swift 3
//: Playground - noun: a place where people can play
import Foundation
extension String {
func matchingStrings(regex: String) -> [[String]] {
guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: []) else { return [] }
let nsString = self as NSString
let results = regex.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length))
return results.map { result in
(0..<result.numberOfRanges).map {
result.rangeAt($0).location != NSNotFound
? nsString.substring(with: result.rangeAt($0))
: ""
}
}
}
}
"prefix12 aaa3 prefix45".matchingStrings(regex: "fix([0-9])([0-9])")
// Prints: [["fix12", "1", "2"], ["fix45", "4", "5"]]
"prefix12".matchingStrings(regex: "(?:prefix)?([0-9]+)")
// Prints: [["prefix12", "12"]]
"12".matchingStrings(regex: "(?:prefix)?([0-9]+)")
// Prints: [["12", "12"]], other answers return an empty array here
// Safely accessing the capture of the first match (if any):
let number = "prefix12suffix".matchingStrings(regex: "fix([0-9]+)su").first?[1]
// Prints: Optional("12")
Swift 2
extension String {
func matchingStrings(regex: String) -> [[String]] {
guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: []) else { return [] }
let nsString = self as NSString
let results = regex.matchesInString(self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length))
return results.map { result in
(0..<result.numberOfRanges).map {
result.rangeAtIndex($0).location != NSNotFound
? nsString.substringWithRange(result.rangeAtIndex($0))
: ""
}
}
}
}
The fastest way to return all matches and capture groups in Swift 5
extension String {
func match(_ regex: String) -> [[String]] {
let nsString = self as NSString
return (try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: []))?.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length)).map { match in
(0..<match.numberOfRanges).map { match.range(at: $0).location == NSNotFound ? "" : nsString.substring(with: match.range(at: $0)) }
} ?? []
}
}
Returns a 2-dimentional array of strings:
"prefix12suffix fix1su".match("fix([0-9]+)su")
returns...
[["fix12su", "12"], ["fix1su", "1"]]
// First element of sub-array is the match
// All subsequent elements are the capture groups
If you want to extract substrings from a String, not just the position, (but the actual String including emojis). Then, the following maybe a simpler solution.
extension String {
func regex (pattern: String) -> [String] {
do {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: NSRegularExpressionOptions(rawValue: 0))
let nsstr = self as NSString
let all = NSRange(location: 0, length: nsstr.length)
var matches : [String] = [String]()
regex.enumerateMatchesInString(self, options: NSMatchingOptions(rawValue: 0), range: all) {
(result : NSTextCheckingResult?, _, _) in
if let r = result {
let result = nsstr.substringWithRange(r.range) as String
matches.append(result)
}
}
return matches
} catch {
return [String]()
}
}
}
Example Usage:
"someText 👿🏅👿⚽️ pig".regex("👿⚽️")
Will return the following:
["👿⚽️"]
Note using "\w+" may produce an unexpected ""
"someText 👿🏅👿⚽️ pig".regex("\\w+")
Will return this String array
["someText", "️", "pig"]
I found that the accepted answer's solution unfortunately does not compile on Swift 3 for Linux. Here's a modified version, then, that does:
import Foundation
func matches(for regex: String, in text: String) -> [String] {
do {
let regex = try RegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: [])
let nsString = NSString(string: text)
let results = regex.matches(in: text, options: [], range: NSRange(location: 0, length: nsString.length))
return results.map { nsString.substring(with: $0.range) }
} catch let error {
print("invalid regex: \(error.localizedDescription)")
return []
}
}
The main differences are:
Swift on Linux seems to require dropping the NS prefix on Foundation objects for which there is no Swift-native equivalent. (See Swift evolution proposal #86.)
Swift on Linux also requires specifying the options arguments for both the RegularExpression initialization and the matches method.
For some reason, coercing a String into an NSString doesn't work in Swift on Linux but initializing a new NSString with a String as the source does work.
This version also works with Swift 3 on macOS / Xcode with the sole exception that you must use the name NSRegularExpression instead of RegularExpression.
Swift 4 without NSString.
extension String {
func matches(regex: String) -> [String] {
guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: [.caseInsensitive]) else { return [] }
let matches = regex.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, self.count))
return matches.map { match in
return String(self[Range(match.range, in: self)!])
}
}
}
#p4bloch if you want to capture results from a series of capture parentheses, then you need to use the rangeAtIndex(index) method of NSTextCheckingResult, instead of range. Here's #MartinR 's method for Swift2 from above, adapted for capture parentheses. In the array that is returned, the first result [0] is the entire capture, and then individual capture groups begin from [1]. I commented out the map operation (so it's easier to see what I changed) and replaced it with nested loops.
func matches(for regex: String!, in text: String!) -> [String] {
do {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: [])
let nsString = text as NSString
let results = regex.matchesInString(text, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length))
var match = [String]()
for result in results {
for i in 0..<result.numberOfRanges {
match.append(nsString.substringWithRange( result.rangeAtIndex(i) ))
}
}
return match
//return results.map { nsString.substringWithRange( $0.range )} //rangeAtIndex(0)
} catch let error as NSError {
print("invalid regex: \(error.localizedDescription)")
return []
}
}
An example use case might be, say you want to split a string of title year eg "Finding Dory 2016" you could do this:
print ( matches(for: "^(.+)\\s(\\d{4})" , in: "Finding Dory 2016"))
// ["Finding Dory 2016", "Finding Dory", "2016"]
Most of the solutions above only give the full match as a result ignoring the capture groups e.g.: ^\d+\s+(\d+)
To get the capture group matches as expected you need something like (Swift4) :
public extension String {
public func capturedGroups(withRegex pattern: String) -> [String] {
var results = [String]()
var regex: NSRegularExpression
do {
regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: [])
} catch {
return results
}
let matches = regex.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSRange(location:0, length: self.count))
guard let match = matches.first else { return results }
let lastRangeIndex = match.numberOfRanges - 1
guard lastRangeIndex >= 1 else { return results }
for i in 1...lastRangeIndex {
let capturedGroupIndex = match.range(at: i)
let matchedString = (self as NSString).substring(with: capturedGroupIndex)
results.append(matchedString)
}
return results
}
}
Update for iOS 16: Regex, RegexBuilder 👷♀️
Xcode previously supported Regex with the Find and Search tab. Many found Apple's NSRegularExpressions Swift API verbose and unwieldy, so Apple released Regex literal support and RegexBuilder this year.
The API has been simplified going forward to tidy up complex String range-based parsing logic in iOS 16 / macOS 13 as well as improve performance.
RegEx literals in Swift 5.7
func parseLine(_ line: Substring) throws -> MailmapEntry {
let regex = /\h*([^<#]+?)??\h*<([^>#]+)>\h*(?:#|\Z)/
guard let match = line.prefixMatch(of: regex) else {
throw MailmapError.badLine
}
return MailmapEntry(name: match.1, email: match.2)
}
At the moment, we are able to match using prefixMatch or wholeMatch to find a single match, but the API may improve in the future for multiple matches.
RegexBuilder in Swift 5.7
RegexBuilder is a new API released by Apple aimed at making RegEx code easier to write in Swift. We can translate the Regex literal /\h*([^<#]+?)??\h*<([^>#]+)>\h*(?:#|\Z)/ from above into a more declarative form using RegexBuilder if we want more readability.
Do note that we can use raw strings in a RegexBuilder and also interleave Regex Literals in the builder if we want to balance readability with conciseness.
import RegexBuilder
let regex = Regex {
ZeroOrMore(.horizontalWhitespace)
Optionally {
Capture(OneOrMore(.noneOf("<#")))
}
.repetitionBehavior(.reluctant)
ZeroOrMore(.horizontalWhitespace)
"<"
Capture(OneOrMore(.noneOf(">#")))
">"
ZeroOrMore(.horizontalWhitespace)
/#|\Z/
}
The RegEx literal /£|\Z/ is equivalent to:
ChoiceOf {
"#"
Anchor.endOfSubjectBeforeNewline
}
Composable RegexComponent
RegexBuilder syntax is similar to SwiftUI also in terms of composability because we can reuse RegexComponents within other RegexComponents:
struct MailmapLine: RegexComponent {
#RegexComponentBuilder
var regex: Regex<(Substring, Substring?, Substring)> {
ZeroOrMore(.horizontalWhitespace)
Optionally {
Capture(OneOrMore(.noneOf("<#")))
}
.repetitionBehavior(.reluctant)
ZeroOrMore(.horizontalWhitespace)
"<"
Capture(OneOrMore(.noneOf(">#")))
">"
ZeroOrMore(.horizontalWhitespace)
ChoiceOf {
"#"
Anchor.endOfSubjectBeforeNewline
}
}
}
This is how I did it, I hope it brings a new perspective how this works on Swift.
In this example below I will get the any string between []
var sample = "this is an [hello] amazing [world]"
var regex = NSRegularExpression(pattern: "\\[.+?\\]"
, options: NSRegularExpressionOptions.CaseInsensitive
, error: nil)
var matches = regex?.matchesInString(sample, options: nil
, range: NSMakeRange(0, countElements(sample))) as Array<NSTextCheckingResult>
for match in matches {
let r = (sample as NSString).substringWithRange(match.range)//cast to NSString is required to match range format.
println("found= \(r)")
}
This is a very simple solution that returns an array of string with the matches
Swift 3.
internal func stringsMatching(regularExpressionPattern: String, options: NSRegularExpression.Options = []) -> [String] {
guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: regularExpressionPattern, options: options) else {
return []
}
let nsString = self as NSString
let results = regex.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length))
return results.map {
nsString.substring(with: $0.range)
}
}
update #Mike Chirico's to Swift 5
extension String{
func regex(pattern: String) -> [String]?{
do {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: NSRegularExpression.Options(rawValue: 0))
let all = NSRange(location: 0, length: count)
var matches = [String]()
regex.enumerateMatches(in: self, options: NSRegularExpression.MatchingOptions(rawValue: 0), range: all) {
(result : NSTextCheckingResult?, _, _) in
if let r = result {
let nsstr = self as NSString
let result = nsstr.substring(with: r.range) as String
matches.append(result)
}
}
return matches
} catch {
return nil
}
}
}
basic phone number matching
let phoneNumbers = ["+79990001101", "+7 (800) 000-11-02", "+34 507 574 147 ", "+1-202-555-0118"]
let match: (String) -> String = {
$0.replacingOccurrences(of: #"[^\d+]"#, with: "", options: .regularExpression)
}
print(phoneNumbers.map(match))
// ["+79990001101", "+78000001102", "+34507574147", "+12025550118"]
Big thanks to Lars Blumberg his answer for capturing groups and full matches with Swift 4, which helped me out a lot. I also made an addition to it for the people who do want an error.localizedDescription response when their regex is invalid:
extension String {
func matchingStrings(regex: String) -> [[String]] {
do {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex)
let nsString = self as NSString
let results = regex.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length))
return results.map { result in
(0..<result.numberOfRanges).map {
result.range(at: $0).location != NSNotFound
? nsString.substring(with: result.range(at: $0))
: ""
}
}
} catch let error {
print("invalid regex: \(error.localizedDescription)")
return []
}
}
}
For me having the localizedDescription as error helped understand what went wrong with escaping, since it's displays which final regex swift tries to implement.
You can use matching(regex:) on the string like:
let array = try "Your String To Search".matching(regex: ".")
using this simple extension:
public extension String {
func matching(regex: String) throws -> [String] {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex)
let results = regex.matches(in: self, range: NSRange(startIndex..., in: self))
return results.map { String(self[Range($0.range, in: self)!]) }
}
}
The string value varies sometimes it's
93.93% - 94.13, 85.34, %74.90, 88.21%
I just need to extract the double value like this.
93.93, 85.34, 74.90, 88.21
You can use regex to extract numbers from your string like this:
let sourceString = "93.93% - 94.13, 85.34, %74.90, 88.21%"
func getNumbers(from string : String) -> [String] {
let pattern = "((\\+|-)?([0-9]+)(\\.[0-9]+)?)|((\\+|-)?\\.?[0-9]+)" // Change this according to your requirement
let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern)
let matches = regex.matches(in: string, range: NSRange(string.startIndex..., in: string))
let result = matches.map { (match) -> String in
let range = Range(match.range, in: string)!
return String(string[range])
}
return result
}
let numberArray = getNumbers(from: sourceString)
print(numberArray)
Result:
["93.93", "94.13", "85.34", "74.90", "88.21"]
you should try using a regex like this for example :
[0-9]{2}.[0-9]{2}
This regex find all string that match two numbers, then a dot and two numbers again.
for each value such as var str='%74.90'; use this line -
var double=str.match(/[+-]?\d+(\.\d+)?/g).map(function(v) { return parseFloat(v); })[0];
Use Scanner to scan the values. Scanner is highly configurable and designed for scanning string and numeric values from loosely demarcated strings. Below is the example:
let characterSet = CharacterSet.init(charactersIn: "0123456789.").inverted
let scanner = Scanner(string: "93.93% - 94.13, 85.34, %74.90, 88.21%")
scanner.charactersToBeSkipped = characterSet
var numStr: NSString?
while scanner.scanUpToCharacters(from: characterSet, into: &numStr) {
print(numStr ?? "")
}
Output:
93.93
94.13
85.34
74.90
88.21
It is easier to understand comparatively regex.
I have a string like this:
"te_st" and like to replace all underscores followed by a character with the uppercased version of this character.
From "te_st" --> Found (regex: "_.") --------replace with next char (+ uppercase ("s"->"S")--------> "teSt"
From "te_st" ---> to "teSt"
From "_he_l_lo" ---> to "HeLLo"
From "an_o_t_h_er_strin_g" ---> to "anOTHErStrinG"
... but I can not really get it working using Swift's NSRegularExpression like this small snipped does:
var result = "te_st" // result should be teSt
result = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: "_*").stringByReplacingMatches(in: result, range: NSRange(0..<result.count), withTemplate: ("$1".uppercased()))
There's no regular syntax to convert a match to uppercase. The code you posted is attempting to convert the string $1 to uppercase which is of course just $1. It isn't attempting to convert the value represented by the $1 match at runtime.
Here's another approach using a regular expression to find the _ followed by a lowercase letter. Those are enumerated and replaced with the uppercase letter.
extension String {
func toCamelCase() -> String {
let expr = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: "_([a-z])")
var res = self
for match in expr.matches(in: self, range: NSRange(0..<res.count)).reversed() {
let range = Range(match.range, in: self)!
let letterRange = Range(match.range(at: 1), in: self)!
res.replaceSubrange(range, with: self[letterRange].uppercased())
}
return res
}
}
print("te_st".toCamelCase())
print("_he_l_lo".toCamelCase())
print("an_o_t_h_er_strin_g".toCamelCase())
This outputs:
teSt
HeLLo
anOTHErStrinG
Here is one implementation using NSRegularExpression. I use group match to get the character after _ and capitalize it and replace the string.
func capitalizeLetterAfterUnderscore(string: String) -> String {
var capitalizedString = string
guard let regularExpression = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: "_(.)") else {
return capitalizedString
}
let matches = regularExpression.matches(in: string,
options: .reportCompletion,
range: NSMakeRange(0, string.count))
for match in matches {
let groupRange = match.range(at: 1)
let index = groupRange.location
let characterIndex = string.index(string.startIndex,
offsetBy: index)
let range = characterIndex ... characterIndex
let capitalizedCharacter = String(capitalizedString[characterIndex]).capitalized
capitalizedString = capitalizedString.replacingCharacters(in: range,
with: capitalizedCharacter)
}
capitalizedString = capitalizedString.replacingOccurrences(of: "_", with: "")
return capitalizedString
}
capitalizeLetterAfterUnderscore(string: "an_o_t_h_er_strin_g") // anOTHErStrinG
And here is other one without using regular expression. I made extension for method which could also be reused.
extension String {
func indexes(of character: String) -> [Index] {
precondition(character.count == 1, "character should be single letter string")
return enumerated().reduce([]) { (partial, component) in
let currentIndex = index(startIndex,
offsetBy: component.offset)
return String(self[currentIndex]) == character
? partial + [currentIndex]
: partial
}
}
func capitalizeLetter(after indexes: [Index]) -> String {
var modifiedString = self
for currentIndex in indexes {
guard let letterIndex = index(currentIndex,
offsetBy: 1,
limitedBy: endIndex)
else { continue }
let range = letterIndex ... letterIndex
modifiedString = modifiedString.replacingCharacters(in: range,
with: self[range].capitalized)
}
return modifiedString
}
}
let string = "an_o_t_h_er_strin_g"
let newString = string.capitalizeLetter(after: string.indexes(of: "_"))
.replacingOccurrences(of: "_",with: "")
You can use string range(of:, options:, range:) method with .regularExpression options to match the occurrences of "_[a-z]" and replace the subranges iterating the ranges found at reversed order by the character at the index after the range lowerbound uppercased:
let string = "an_o_t_h_er_strin_g"
let regex = "_[a-z]"
var start = string.startIndex
var ranges:[Range<String.Index>] = []
while let range = string.range(of: regex, options: .regularExpression, range: start..<string.endIndex) {
start = range.upperBound
ranges.append(range)
}
var finalString = string
for range in ranges.reversed() {
finalString.replaceSubrange(range, with: String(string[string.index(after: range.lowerBound)]).uppercased())
}
print(finalString) // "anOTHErStrinG\n"
The problem is that it is converting the string "$1" to upper case (which is, unsurprisingly unchanged, just "$1") and using "$1" as the template. If you want to use regex, you will have to enumerate through matches yourself.
The alternative is to split the string by _ characters and uppercase the first character of every substring (except the first) and joining it back together using reduce:
let input = "te_st"
let output = input.components(separatedBy: "_").enumerated().reduce("") { $0 + ($1.0 == 0 ? $1.1 : $1.1.uppercasedFirst()) }
Or, if your goal isn't to write code as cryptic as most regex, we can make that a tad more legible:
let output = input
.components(separatedBy: "_")
.enumerated()
.reduce("") { result, current in
if current.offset == 0 {
return current.element // because you don’t want the first component capitalized
} else {
return result + current.element.uppercasedFirst()
}
}
Resulting in:
teSt
Note, that uses this extension for capitalizing the first character:
extension String {
func uppercasedFirst(with locale: Locale? = nil) -> String {
guard count > 0 else { return self }
return String(self[startIndex]).uppercased(with: locale) + self[index(after: startIndex)...]
}
}
If you want to do sort of dynamic conversion with NSRegularExpression, you can subclass NSRegularExpression and override replacementString(for:in:offset:template:):
class ToCamelRegularExpression: NSRegularExpression {
override func replacementString(for result: NSTextCheckingResult, in string: String, offset: Int, template templ: String) -> String {
if let range = Range(result.range(at: 1), in: string) {
return string[range].uppercased()
} else {
return super.replacementString(for: result, in: string, offset: 0, template: templ)
}
}
}
func toCamelCase(_ input: String) -> String { //Make this a String extension if you prefer...
let regex = try! ToCamelRegularExpression(pattern: "_(.)")
return regex.stringByReplacingMatches(in: input, options: [], range: NSRange(0..<input.utf16.count), withTemplate: "$1")
}
print(toCamelCase("te_st")) //-> teSt
print(toCamelCase("_he_l_lo")) //-> HeLLo
print(toCamelCase("an_o_t_h_er_strin_g")) //-> anOTHErStrinG