check if(country == #"(null)" doesn't work - iphone

I got the problem that the if-statement doesn't work. After the first code line the variable contains the value "(null)", because the user who picked the contact from his iphone address book doesn't set the country key for this contact, so far so good.
but if I check the variable, it won't be true, but the value is certainly "(null)"... does someone have an idea?
NSString *country = [NSString [the dict objectForKey:(NSString *)kABPersonAddressCountryKey]];
if(country == #"(null)")
{
country = #"";
}
thanks in advance
sean

The correct expression would be:
if (country == nil)
which can be further shortened to:
if (!country)
And if you really want to test equality with the #"(null)" string, you should use the isEqual: method or isEqualToString:
if ([country isEqualToString:#"(null)"])
When you compare using the == operator, you are comparing object addresses, not their contents:
NSString *foo1 = [NSString stringWithString:#"foo"];
NSString *foo2 = [NSString stringWithString:#"foo"];
NSAssert(foo1 != foo2, #"The addresses are different.");
NSAssert([foo1 isEqual:foo2], #"But the contents are same.");
NSAssert([foo1 isEqualToString:foo2], #"True again, faster than isEqual:.");

That was a great answer I didn't know there was all those different ways of checking for nil or null string.

Related

how to solve a conditional equation in iOS

I want to solve a conditional equation in iOS:
The equation I get from database is in NSString format, for example:
if((height > 0), (weight+ 2 ), ( weight-1 ) )
As per our understanding, if I parse the above string and separateheight>0condition, it will be in the NSString format. But to evaluate it how do I convert the string to a conditional statement?
Once the conditional statement is obtained the equation can be solved by converting it to a ternary equation as follows:
Bool status;
NSString *condition=#” height>0”;
If(condition)    //But condition is treated as a string and not as a conditional statement.
{
status=True;
}
else
{
status=False;
}
Return status ? weight+ 2 : weight-1;`
Also the equations can dynamically change, so they cannot be hard coded. In short how do I solve this equation which I get as a NSString.
Thank you for your patience!
DDMathParser author here...
To expand on Jonathan's answer, here's how you could do it entirely in DDMathParser. However, to parse the string as-is, you'll need to do two things.
First, you'll need to create an if function:
DDMathEvaluator *evaluator = [DDMathEvaluator sharedMathEvaluator];
[evaluator registerFunction:^DDExpression *(NSArray *args, NSDictionary *vars, DDMathEvaluator *eval, NSError *__autoreleasing *error) {
if ([args count] == 3) {
DDExpression *condition = [args objectAtIndex:0];
DDExpression *resultExpression = nil;
NSNumber *conditionValue = [condition evaluateWithSubstitutions:vars evaluator:eval error:error];
if ([conditionValue boolValue] == YES) {
resultExpression = [args objectAtIndex:1];
} else {
resultExpression = [args objectAtIndex:2];
}
NSNumber *result = [resultExpression evaluateWithSubstitutions:vars evaluator:eval error:error];
return [DDExpression numberExpressionWithNumber:result];
}
return nil;
} forName:#"if"];
This creates the if() function, which takes three parameters. Depending on how the first parameter evaluates, it either evaluates to the result of the second or third parameter.
The other thing you'll need to do is tell the evaluator what height and weight mean. Since they don't start with a $ character, they get interpreted as functions, and not variables. If they started with a $, then it would be as simple as evaluating it like this:
NSString *expression = #"if(($height > 0), ($weight+ 2 ), ( $weight-1 ) )";
NSDictionary *variables = #{#"height" : #42, #"weight" : #13};
NSNumber *result = [expression evaluateWithSubstitutions:variables evaluator:evaluator error:nil];
However, since they don't start with a $, they're functions, which means you need to tell the evaluator what the functions evaluate to. You could do this by creating functions for both height and weight, just like you did for if:
[evaluator registerFunction:^DDExpression *(NSArray *args, NSDictionary *vars, DDMathEvaluator *eval, NSError **error) {
return [DDExpression numberExpressionWithNumber:#42];
} forName:#"height"];
Alternatively, you could make it a bit more dynamic and use the functionResolver block of DDMathEvaluator, which is a block that returns a block (woooooo) and would look like this:
NSDictionary *values = #{#"height": #42, #"weight": #13};
[evaluator setFunctionResolver:^DDMathFunction(NSString *name) {
DDMathFunction f = ^(NSArray *args, NSDictionary *vars, DDMathEvaluator *eval, NSError **error) {
NSNumber *n = [values objectForKey:name];
if (!n) { n = #0; }
return [DDExpression numberExpressionWithNumber:n];
};
return f;
}];
With those two pieces in place (registering if and providing the values of height and weight), you can do:
NSString *expression = #"if((height > 0), (weight+ 2 ), ( weight-1 ) )";
NSNumber *result = [expression evaluateWithSubstitutions:nil evaluator:evaluator error:nil];
... and get back the proper result of #15.
(I have plans to make DDMathParser allow unknown functions to fall back to provided variable values, but I haven't quite finished it yet)
you will have to write your own interpreter or find one that supports this kind of expressions.
The first part (the condition) can be evaluated by NSPredicate. For the second part (the calculation) you will need some math expression evaluation. Try this out https://github.com/davedelong/DDMathParser. Maybe you can do both with DDMathParser but i am not sure.

How to replace occurrences of multiple strings with multiple other strings [NSString]

NSString *string = [myString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#"<wow>" withString:someString];
I have this code. Now suppose my app's user enters two different strings I want to replace with two different other strings, how do I achieve that? I don't care if it uses private APIs, i'm developing for the jailbroken platform. My user is going to either enter or or . I want to replace any occurrences of those strings with their respective to-be-replaced-with strings :)
Thanks in advance :P
Both dasblinkenlight’s and Matthias’s answers will work, but they both result in the creation of a couple of intermediate NSStrings; that’s not really a problem if you’re not doing this operation often, but a better approach would look like this.
NSMutableString *myStringMut = [[myString mutableCopy] autorelease];
[myStringMut replaceOccurrencesOfString:#"a" withString:somethingElse];
[myStringMut replaceOccurrencesOfString:#"b" withString:somethingElseElse];
// etc.
You can then use myStringMut as you would’ve used myString, since NSMutableString is an NSString subclass.
The simplest solution is running stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString twice:
NSString *string = [[myString
stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#"<wow>" withString:someString1]
stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#"<boo>" withString:someString2];
I would just run the string replacing method again
NSString *string = [myString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#"foo" withString:#"String 1"];
string = [string stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#"bar" withString:#"String 2"];
This works well for me in Swift 3.1
let str = "hi hello hey"
var replacedStr = (str as NSString).replacingOccurrences(of: "hi", with: "Hi")
replacedStr = (replacedStr as NSString).replacingOccurrences(of: "hello", with: "Hello")
replacedStr = (replacedStr as NSString).replacingOccurrences(of: "hey", with: "Hey")
print(replacedStr) // Hi Hello Hey

Test If An NSString Contains a Letter

I'm working on an iPhone project and I need to check if the user's input in a UITextfield contains a letter. More generally if an NSString contains a letter.
I tried this with a giant if loop with the rangeofstring:#"A".location == NSNotFound and then did OR rangeofstring:#"B".location == NSNotFound
and so on....
But:
It doesn't seem to work
There has to be a simple line of code to check if the NSString contains letters.
I have been searching this for hours... Can someone please answer this question???
Use an NSCharacterSet. Note that letterCharacterSet includes all things that are "letters" or "ideographs." So that includes é and 中, but usually that's what you want. If you want a specific set of letters (like English letters), you can construct your own NSCharacterSet with them using characterSetWithCharactersInString:.
if ([string rangeOfCharacterFromSet:[NSCharacterSet letterCharacterSet]].location == NSNotFound)
If you want to make sure the text has a certain letter in it (as opposed to just ANY letter), use the rangeOfString: message. For example, to ensure the text contains the letter "Q":
NSString *string = #"poQduu";
if ([string rangeOfString:#"Q"].location != NSNotFound) {
DLog (#"Yes, we have a Q at location %i", [string rangeOfString:#"Q"].location );
}
As others (Rob Napier) note, if you want to find ANY letter, use the rangeOfCharacterFromSet: message.
if ([string rangeOfCharacterFromSet:[NSCharacterSet letterCharacterSet]].location != NSNotFound) ...

How to check if NSString is contains a numeric value?

I have a string that is being generate from a formula, however I only want to use the string as long as all of its characters are numeric, if not that I want to do something different for instance display an error message.
I have been having a look round but am finding it hard to find anything that works along the lines of what I am wanting to do. I have looked at NSScanner but I am not sure if its checking the whole string and then I am not actually sure how to check if these characters are numeric
- (void)isNumeric:(NSString *)code{
NSScanner *ns = [NSScanner scannerWithString:code];
if ( [ns scanFloat:NULL] ) //what can I use instead of NULL?
{
NSLog(#"INSIDE IF");
}
else {
NSLog(#"OUTSIDE IF");
}
}
So after a few more hours searching I have stumbled across an implementation that dose exactly what I am looking for.
so if you are looking to check if their are any alphanumeric characters in your NSString this works here
-(bool) isNumeric:(NSString*) hexText
{
NSNumberFormatter* numberFormatter = [[[NSNumberFormatter alloc] init] autorelease];
NSNumber* number = [numberFormatter numberFromString:hexText];
if (number != nil) {
NSLog(#"%# is numeric", hexText);
//do some stuff here
return true;
}
NSLog(#"%# is not numeric", hexText);
//or do some more stuff here
return false;
}
hope this helps.
Something like this would work:
#interface NSString (usefull_stuff)
- (BOOL) isAllDigits;
#end
#implementation NSString (usefull_stuff)
- (BOOL) isAllDigits
{
NSCharacterSet* nonNumbers = [[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] invertedSet];
NSRange r = [self rangeOfCharacterFromSet: nonNumbers];
return r.location == NSNotFound && self.length > 0;
}
#end
then just use it like this:
NSString* hasOtherStuff = #"234 other stuff";
NSString* digitsOnly = #"123345999996665003030303030";
BOOL b1 = [hasOtherStuff isAllDigits];
BOOL b2 = [digitsOnly isAllDigits];
You don't have to wrap the functionality in a private category extension like this, but it sure makes it easy to reuse..
I like this solution better than the others since it wont ever overflow some int/float that is being scanned via NSScanner - the number of digits can be pretty much any length.
Consider NSString integerValue - it returns an NSInteger. However, it will accept some strings that are not entirely numeric and does not provide a mechanism to determine strings which are not numeric at all. This may or may not be acceptable.
For instance, " 13 " -> 13, "42foo" -> 42 and "helloworld" -> 0.
Happy coding.
Now, since the above was sort of a tangent to the question, see determine if string is numeric. Code taken from link, with comments added:
BOOL isNumeric(NSString *s)
{
NSScanner *sc = [NSScanner scannerWithString: s];
// We can pass NULL because we don't actually need the value to test
// for if the string is numeric. This is allowable.
if ( [sc scanFloat:NULL] )
{
// Ensure nothing left in scanner so that "42foo" is not accepted.
// ("42" would be consumed by scanFloat above leaving "foo".)
return [sc isAtEnd];
}
// Couldn't even scan a float :(
return NO;
}
The above works with just scanFloat -- e.g. no scanInt -- because the range of a float is much larger than that of an integer (even a 64-bit integer).
This function checks for "totally numeric" and will accept "42" and "0.13E2" but reject " 13 ", "42foo" and "helloworld".
It's very simple.
+ (BOOL)isStringNumeric:(NSString *)text
{
NSCharacterSet *alphaNums = [NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet];
NSCharacterSet *inStringSet = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:text];
return [alphaNums isSupersetOfSet:inStringSet];
}
Like this:
- (void)isNumeric:(NSString *)code{
NSScanner *ns = [NSScanner scannerWithString:code];
float the_value;
if ( [ns scanFloat:&the_value] )
{
NSLog(#"INSIDE IF");
// do something with `the_value` if you like
}
else {
NSLog(#"OUTSIDE IF");
}
}
Faced same problem in Swift.
In Swift you should use this code, according TomSwift's answer:
func isAllDigits(str: String) -> Bool {
let nonNumbers = NSCharacterSet.decimalDigitCharacterSet()
if let range = str.rangeOfCharacterFromSet(nonNumbers) {
return true
}
else {
return false
}
}
P.S. Also you can use other NSCharacterSets or their combinations to check your string!
For simple numbers like "12234" or "231231.23123" the answer can be simple.
There is a transformation law for int numbers: when string with integer transforms to int (or long) number and then, again, transforms it back to another string these strings will be equal.
In Objective C it will looks like:
NSString *numStr=#"1234",*num2Str=nil;
num2Str=[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%lld",numStr.longlongValue];
if([numStr isEqualToString: num2Str]) NSLog(#"numStr is an integer number!");
By using this transformation law we can create solution
to detect double or long numbers:
NSString *numStr=#"12134.343"
NSArray *numList=[numStr componentsSeparatedByString:#"."];
if([[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%lld", numStr.longLongValue] isEqualToString:numStr]) NSLog(#"numStr is an integer number");
else
if( numList.count==2 &&
[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%lld",((NSString*)numList[0]).longLongValue] isEqualToString:(NSString*)numList[0]] &&
[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%lld",((NSString*)numList[1]).longLongValue] isEqualToString:(NSString*)numList[1]] )
NSLog(#"numStr is a double number");
else
NSLog(#"numStr is not a number");
I did not copy the code above from my work code so can be some mistakes, but I think the main point is clear.
Of course this solution doesn't work with numbers like "1E100", as well it doesn't take in account size of integer and fractional part. By using the law described above you can do whatever number detection you need.
C.Johns' answer is wrong. If you use a formatter, you risk apple changing their codebase at some point and having the formatter spit out a partial result. Tom's answer is wrong too. If you use the rangeOfCharacterFromSet method and check for NSNotFound, it'll register a true if the string contains even one number. Similarly, other answers in this thread suggest using the Integer value method. That is also wrong because it will register a true if even one integer is present in the string. The OP asked for an answer that ensures the entire string is numerical. Try this:
NSCharacterSet *searchSet = [[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] invertedSet];
Tom was right about this part. That step gives you the non-numerical string characters. But then we do this:
NSString *trimmedString = [string stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:searchSet];
return (string.length == trimmedString.length);
Tom's inverted character set can TRIM a string. So we can use that trim method to test if any non numerals exist in the string by comparing their lengths.

How to know whether a UITextField contains a specific character

How would I say that if a UITextField has #"-" in it, do something.
Right now my code is like this. It doesn't seem to work:
if (MyUITextField.text == #"-") {
NSRange range = {0,1};
[a deleteCharactersInRange:range];
MyUITextField.text = MyUILabel.text;
}
I know that I am doing something very wrong with the code. Please help.
try changing == to [MyUITextField.text isEqualToString:#"-"]
as == tests to see if they are the same object, while isEqualToString compares the contents of the strings.
Assuming your string is defined as:
NSString *str = #"foo-bar";
To check if your string contains "-" you can do the following:
if ([str rangeOfString:#"-"].length > 0)
{
NSLog(#"Contains -");
}
It looks like you wanted to delete the first character if a string starts with a given character. In this case you can do something like this:
if ([str hasPrefix:#"f"])
{
NSLog(#"Starts with f");
}