In Swift, how to modify a character in string with subscript? - swift

Question

Like in C, we can simply do
str[i] = str[j]
But how to write the similar logic in swift?
Here is my code, but got error:
Cannot assign through subscript: subscript is get-only
let indexI = targetString.index(targetString.startIndex, offsetBy: i)
let indexJ = targetString.index(targetString.startIndex, offsetBy: j)
targetString[indexI] = targetString[indexJ]
I know it may work by using this method, but it's too inconvenient
replaceSubrange(, with: )

Answer 1

In C, a string (char *) can be treated as an array of characters. In Swift, you can convert the String to an [Character], do the modifications you want, and then convert the [Character] back to String.
For example:
let str = "hello"
var strchars = Array(str)
strchars[0] = strchars[4]
let str2 = String(strchars)
print(str2) // "oello"
This might seem like a lot of work for a single modification, but if you are moving many characters this way, you only have to convert once each direction.
Reverse a String
Here's an example of a simple algorithm to reverse a string. By converting to an array of characters first, this algorithm is similar to the way you might do it in C:
let str = "abcdefg"
var strchars = Array(str)
var start = 0
var end = strchars.count - 1
while start < end {
let temp = strchars[start]
strchars[start] = strchars[end]
strchars[end] = temp
start += 1
end -= 1
}
let str2 = String(strchars)
print(str2) // "gfedcba"

Answer 2

Dealing with String with Swift is major pain in the a**. Unlike most languages I know that treat string as an array of characters, Swift treats strings as collection of extended grapheme clusters and the APIs to access them is really clumsy. Changes are coming in Swift 4 but that manifesto lost me about 10 paragraphs in.
Back to your question... you can replace the character like this:
var targetString = "Hello world"
let i = 0
let j = 1
let indexI = targetString.index(targetString.startIndex, offsetBy: i)
let indexJ = targetString.index(targetString.startIndex, offsetBy: j)
targetString.replaceSubrange(indexI...indexI, with: targetString[indexJ...indexJ])
print(targetString) // eello world

Answer 3

I was quite shocked as well by the fact that swift makes string indexing so damn complicated. For that reason, I have built some string extensions that enable you to retrieve and change parts of strings based on indices, closed ranges, and open ranges, PartialRangeFrom, PartialRangeThrough, and PartialRangeUpTo. You can download the repository I created here
You can also pass in negative numbers in order to access characters from the end backwards.
public extension String {
/**
Enables passing in negative indices to access characters
starting from the end and going backwards.
if num is negative, then it is added to the
length of the string to retrieve the true index.
*/
func negativeIndex(_ num: Int) -> Int {
return num < 0 ? num + self.count : num
}
func strOpenRange(index i: Int) -> Range<String.Index> {
let j = negativeIndex(i)
return strOpenRange(j..<(j + 1), checkNegative: false)
}
func strOpenRange(
_ range: Range<Int>, checkNegative: Bool = true
) -> Range<String.Index> {
var lower = range.lowerBound
var upper = range.upperBound
if checkNegative {
lower = negativeIndex(lower)
upper = negativeIndex(upper)
}
let idx1 = index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: lower)
let idx2 = index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: upper)
return idx1..<idx2
}
func strClosedRange(
_ range: CountableClosedRange<Int>, checkNegative: Bool = true
) -> ClosedRange<String.Index> {
var lower = range.lowerBound
var upper = range.upperBound
if checkNegative {
lower = negativeIndex(lower)
upper = negativeIndex(upper)
}
let start = self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: lower)
let end = self.index(start, offsetBy: upper - lower)
return start...end
}
// MARK: - Subscripts
/**
Gets and sets a character at a given index.
Negative indices are added to the length so that
characters can be accessed from the end backwards
Usage: `string[n]`
*/
subscript(_ i: Int) -> String {
get {
return String(self[strOpenRange(index: i)])
}
set {
let range = strOpenRange(index: i)
replaceSubrange(range, with: newValue)
}
}
/**
Gets and sets characters in an open range.
Supports negative indexing.
Usage: `string[n..<n]`
*/
subscript(_ r: Range<Int>) -> String {
get {
return String(self[strOpenRange(r)])
}
set {
replaceSubrange(strOpenRange(r), with: newValue)
}
}
/**
Gets and sets characters in a closed range.
Supports negative indexing
Usage: `string[n...n]`
*/
subscript(_ r: CountableClosedRange<Int>) -> String {
get {
return String(self[strClosedRange(r)])
}
set {
replaceSubrange(strClosedRange(r), with: newValue)
}
}
/// `string[n...]`. See PartialRangeFrom
subscript(r: PartialRangeFrom<Int>) -> String {
get {
return String(self[strOpenRange(r.lowerBound..<self.count)])
}
set {
replaceSubrange(strOpenRange(r.lowerBound..<self.count), with: newValue)
}
}
/// `string[...n]`. See PartialRangeThrough
subscript(r: PartialRangeThrough<Int>) -> String {
get {
let upper = negativeIndex(r.upperBound)
return String(self[strClosedRange(0...upper, checkNegative: false)])
}
set {
let upper = negativeIndex(r.upperBound)
replaceSubrange(
strClosedRange(0...upper, checkNegative: false), with: newValue
)
}
}
/// `string[...<n]`. See PartialRangeUpTo
subscript(r: PartialRangeUpTo<Int>) -> String {
get {
let upper = negativeIndex(r.upperBound)
return String(self[strOpenRange(0..<upper, checkNegative: false)])
}
set {
let upper = negativeIndex(r.upperBound)
replaceSubrange(
strOpenRange(0..<upper, checkNegative: false), with: newValue
)
}
}
}
Usage:
let text = "012345"
print(text[2]) // "2"
print(text[-1] // "5"
print(text[1...3]) // "123"
print(text[2..<3]) // "2"
print(text[3...]) // "345"
print(text[...3]) // "0123"
print(text[..<3]) // "012"
print(text[(-3)...] // "345"
print(text[...(-2)] // "01234"
All of the above works with assignment as well. All subscripts have getters and setters.

Answer 4

a new extension added,
since String conforms to BidirectionalCollection Protocol
extension String{
subscript(at i: Int) -> String? {
get {
if i < count{
let idx = index(startIndex, offsetBy: i)
return String(self[idx])
}
else{
return nil
}
}
set {
if i < count{
let idx = index(startIndex, offsetBy: i)
remove(at: idx)
if let new = newValue, let first = new.first{
insert(first, at: idx)
}
}
}
}
}
call like this:
var str = "fighter"
str[at: 2] = "6"