iPhone parsing url for GET params - iphone

Question

I have an string which is got from parsing an xml site.
http://www.arijasoft.com/givemesomthing.php?a=3434&b=435edsf&c=500
I want to have an NSString function that will be able to parse the value of c.
Is there a default function or do i have to write it manually.

Answer 1

You could use Regular expression via RegExKit Lite:
http://regexkit.sourceforge.net/RegexKitLite/
Or you could separate the string into components (which is less nice):
NSString *url=#"http://www.arijasoft.com/givemesomthing.php?a=3434&b=435edsf&c=500";
NSArray *comp1 = [url componentsSeparatedByString:#"?"];
NSString *query = [comp1 lastObject];
NSArray *queryElements = [query componentsSeparatedByString:#"&"];
for (NSString *element in queryElements) {
NSArray *keyVal = [element componentsSeparatedByString:#"="];
if (keyVal.count > 0) {
NSString *variableKey = [keyVal objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *value = (keyVal.count == 2) ? [keyVal lastObject] : nil;
}
}

Answer 2

I made a class that does this parsing for you using an NSScanner, as an answer to the same question a few days ago. You might find it useful.
You can easily use it like:
URLParser *parser = [[[URLParser alloc] initWithURLString:#"http://www.arijasoft.com/givemesomthing.php?a=3434&b=435edsf&c=500"] autorelease];
NSString *c = [parser valueForVariable:#"c"]; //c=500

Answer 3

Try the following:
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.arijasoft.com/givemesomthing.php?a=3434&b=435edsf&c=500"];
NSMutableString *parameterString = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat:#"{%#;}",[url parameterString]];
[parameterString replaceOccurrencesOfString:#"&" withString:#";"];
// Convert string into Dictionary
NSPropertyListFormat format;
NSString *error;
NSDictionary *paramDict = [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListFromData:[parameterString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] mutabilityOption: NSPropertyListImmutable format:&format errorDescription:&error];
// Now take the parameter you want
NSString *value = [paramDict valueForKey:#"c"];

Answer 4

Here is the native iOS approach using NSURLComponents and NSURLQueryItem classes:
NSString *theURLString = #"http://www.arijasoft.com/givemesomthing.php?a=3434&b=435edsf&c=500";
NSArray<NSURLQueryItem *> *theQueryItemsArray = [NSURLComponents componentsWithString:theURLString].queryItems;
for (NSURLQueryItem *theQueryItem in theQueryItemsArray)
{
NSLog(#"%# %#", theQueryItem.name, theQueryItem.value);
}