How to use NSScanner or componentsSeperatedByString - iphone

Question

I have a {"Red","Blue","Green","Yellow"} returned as string. How to process this to add to an array ?
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {
NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
NSString* sampleString = #"{\"Red\",\"Blue\",\"Green\",\"Yellow\"}";
NSArray* components = [sampleString componentsSeperatedByString:#"\"{"];
[pool drain];
return 0;
}
Updated Code#
NSString* sampleString = #"{\"Red\",\"Blue\",\"Green\",\"Yellow\"}";
NSMutableArray *rows = [NSMutableArray array];
// Get newline character set
NSMutableCharacterSet *removeCharacterSet = (id)[NSMutableCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:#"{(,}"];
[removeCharacterSet formIntersectionWithCharacterSet:[[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet] invertedSet]];
// Characters that are important to the parser
NSMutableCharacterSet *importantCharactersSet = (id)[NSMutableCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:#"\""];
[importantCharactersSet formUnionWithCharacterSet:removeCharacterSet];
// Create scanner, and scan string
NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:sampleString];
[scanner setCharactersToBeSkipped:nil];
while ( ![scanner isAtEnd] )
{
BOOL insideQuotes = NO;
BOOL finishedRow = NO;
NSMutableArray *columns = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:10];
NSMutableString *currentColumn = [NSMutableString string];
while ( !finishedRow )
{
NSString *tempString;
if ( [scanner scanUpToCharactersFromSet:importantCharactersSet intoString:&tempString] ) {
[currentColumn appendString:tempString];
}
if ( [scanner isAtEnd] ) {
if ( ![currentColumn isEqualToString:#""] ) [columns addObject:currentColumn];
finishedRow = YES;
}
else if ( [scanner scanCharactersFromSet:removeCharacterSet intoString:&tempString] ) {
if ( insideQuotes ) {
// Add line break to column text
[currentColumn appendString:tempString];
}
else {
// End of row
if ( ![currentColumn isEqualToString:#""] ) [columns addObject:currentColumn];
finishedRow = YES;
}
}
else if ( [scanner scanString:#"\"" intoString:NULL] ) {
if ( insideQuotes && [scanner scanString:#"\"" intoString:NULL] ) {
// Replace double quotes with a single quote in the column string.
[currentColumn appendString:#"\""];
}
else {
// Start or end of a quoted string.
insideQuotes = !insideQuotes;
}
}
else if ( [scanner scanString:#"," intoString:NULL] ) {
if ( insideQuotes ) {
[currentColumn appendString:#","];
}
else {
// This is a column separating comma
[columns addObject:currentColumn];
currentColumn = [NSMutableString string];
[scanner scanCharactersFromSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet] intoString:NULL];
}
}
}
if ( [columns count] > 0 ) [rows addObject:columns];
}
NSLog(#"This String:%#",[rows objectAtIndex:0]);
I got code from http://www.macresearch.org/cocoa-scientists-part-xxvi-parsing-csv-data. Now the output is This String:( Red ), How to get rid of "(" ")" ?

Answer 1

Here's all you need to scan the sample you've provided using an instance of NSScanner:
NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:#"{\"Red\",\"Blue\",\"Green\",\"Yellow\"}"];
NSMutableCharacterSet *charactersToSkip = [NSMutableCharacterSet punctuationCharacterSet];
[scanner setCharactersToBeSkipped:charactersToSkip];
NSMutableArray *substrings = [NSMutableArray array];
NSString *substring = #"";
while (![scanner isAtEnd]) {
[scanner scanUpToCharactersFromSet:charactersToSkip intoString:&substring];
[scanner scanCharactersFromSet:charactersToSkip intoString:NULL];
[substrings addObject:substring];
}
NSLog(#"%#", substrings);
Note that if you substituted parens for curly braces, all you'd need to do to create an array of strings from the sample would be:
NSString *sampleString = #"(\"Red\",\"Blue\",\"Green\",\"Yellow\")";
NSArray *strings = [sampleString propertyList];
NSLog(#"%#", strings);
...but I'm not really clear on what you need to accomplish.