Getting NSRange of string between quotations? - iphone

Question

I have a string:
He said "hello mate" yesterday.
I want to get an NSRange from the first quotation to the last quotation. So I tried something like this:
NSRange openingRange = [title rangeOfString:#"\""];
NSRange closingRange = [title rangeOfString:#"\""];
NSRange textRange = NSMakeRange(openingRange.location, closingRange.location+1 - openingRange.location);
But I'm not sure how to make it distinguish between the first quote and the second quote. How would I do this?

Answer 1

You could use a regular expression for this:
NSError *error = nil;
NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:#"([\"])(?:\\\\\\1|.)*?\\1" options:0 error:&error];
NSRange range = [regex rangeOfFirstMatchInString:myString options:0 range:NSRangeMake(0, [myString length]];
Don't forget to check for errors ;)

Answer 2

You can always use 'rangeOfString:options:range:' for the second one (starting after the 'location' of the first one).
Option 1
- (NSRange)rangeOfQuoteInString:(NSString *)str {
int firstMatch = [str rangeOfString:#"\""].location;
int secondMatch = [str rangeOfString:#"\"" options:0 range:NSMakeRange(firstMatch + 1, [str length] - firstMatch - 1)].location;
return NSMakeRange(firstMatch, secondMatch + 1 - firstMatch);
}
I hope this is right. Done on my phone at dinner. ;-)
One other thing, though, since range of string likely does a similar implementation, why not iterate the 'char' values in the string and look for matches #1 & #2? Could be as fast or faster.
Option 2
- (NSRange)rangeOfQuoteInString:(NSString *)str {
int firstMatch = -1;
int secondMatch = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < [str length]; i = i + 1) {
unichar c = [str characterAtIndex:i];
if (c == '"') {
if (firstMatch == -1) {
firstMatch = i;
} else {
secondMatch = i;
break;
}
}
}
if (firstMatch == -1 || secondMatch == -1) {
// No full quote was found
return NSMakeRange(NSNotFound, 0);
} else {
return NSMakeRange(firstMatch, secondMatch + 1 - firstMatch);
}
}