UIWebView URL from String without http:// - iphone

Question

So I check if the string starts with "http://" using the code below, and then I want to add "http://" so that I'm able to open the page in UIWebView.
NSString *firstString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", URL.text];
NSString *check = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", #"http://"];
if (firstString != check) {
NSString *newString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"http://%#", URL.text];
newString = [newString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(7, newString.length - 7)];
URL.text = newString;
}
[WebView loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:URL.text]]];`
This doesn't work for some reason.
Do you know why?

Answer 1

Somebody posted as I was writing, but either way, here's an answer:
You are making this too difficult. You simply need to use hasPrefix to check for "http". As an example, I use this for my unified search/url bar.
- (IBAction)go:(id)sender {
NSString *inputString = [searchField stringValue];
NSString *outputString = [inputString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#" " withString:#"+"];
if ([inputString hasPrefix:#"http://"]) {
//Has Prefix
[[webView mainFrame] loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:inputString]]];
}
else
{
//Does not have prefix. Do what you want here. I google it.
NSString *googleString = #"http://google.com/search?q=";
NSString *searchString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#%#", googleString, outputString];
[[webView mainFrame] loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:searchString]]];
}
}
That is for googling instead, you could keep using NSString *newString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"http://%#", URL.text];
You could add a few more checks as well if you wanted to. Good luck!

Answer 2

firstString != check checks to see if both objects point to the same location in memory. [firstString isEqualToString:check] checks if the two strings are equal. However, what you most likely want to do is if(![firstString hasPrefix:check]). This will check to make sure firstString does not start with check, then you can append check to the start of it. Alternatively, you can do firstString = [firstString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#"http://" withString:#""];, and then you know it will never start with #"http://"

Answer 3

Try printing what URL.text is before the loadRequest line via NSLog(#"%#",URL.text);
Also the preferred check condition would be if (![firstString isEqualToString:check]) {}