Nsrange from Swift Range

NSRange from Swift Range?

Swift String ranges and NSString ranges are not "compatible".
For example, an emoji like counts as one Swift character, but as two NSString
characters (a so-called UTF-16 surrogate pair).

Therefore your suggested solution will produce unexpected results if the string
contains such characters. Example:

let text = "Long paragraph saying!"
let textRange = text.startIndex..<text.endIndex
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: text)

text.enumerateSubstringsInRange(textRange, options: NSStringEnumerationOptions.ByWords, { (substring, substringRange, enclosingRange, stop) -> () in
let start = distance(text.startIndex, substringRange.startIndex)
let length = distance(substringRange.startIndex, substringRange.endIndex)
let range = NSMakeRange(start, length)

if (substring == "saying") {
attributedString.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: NSColor.redColor(), range: range)
}
})
println(attributedString)

Output:


Long paragra{
}ph say{
NSColor = "NSCalibratedRGBColorSpace 1 0 0 1";
}ing!{
}

As you see, "ph say" has been marked with the attribute, not "saying".

Since NS(Mutable)AttributedString ultimately requires an NSString and an NSRange, it is actually
better to convert the given string to NSString first. Then the substringRange
is an NSRange and you don't have to convert the ranges anymore:

let text = "Long paragraph saying!"
let nsText = text as NSString
let textRange = NSMakeRange(0, nsText.length)
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: nsText)

nsText.enumerateSubstringsInRange(textRange, options: NSStringEnumerationOptions.ByWords, { (substring, substringRange, enclosingRange, stop) -> () in

if (substring == "saying") {
attributedString.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: NSColor.redColor(), range: substringRange)
}
})
println(attributedString)

Output:


Long paragraph {
}saying{
NSColor = "NSCalibratedRGBColorSpace 1 0 0 1";
}!{
}

Update for Swift 2:

let text = "Long paragraph saying!"
let nsText = text as NSString
let textRange = NSMakeRange(0, nsText.length)
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: text)

nsText.enumerateSubstringsInRange(textRange, options: .ByWords, usingBlock: {
(substring, substringRange, _, _) in

if (substring == "saying") {
attributedString.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: NSColor.redColor(), range: substringRange)
}
})
print(attributedString)

Update for Swift 3:

let text = "Long paragraph saying!"
let nsText = text as NSString
let textRange = NSMakeRange(0, nsText.length)
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: text)

nsText.enumerateSubstrings(in: textRange, options: .byWords, using: {
(substring, substringRange, _, _) in

if (substring == "saying") {
attributedString.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: NSColor.red, range: substringRange)
}
})
print(attributedString)

Update for Swift 4:

As of Swift 4 (Xcode 9), the Swift standard library
provides method to convert between Range<String.Index> and NSRange.
Converting to NSString is no longer necessary:

let text = "Long paragraph saying!"
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: text)

text.enumerateSubstrings(in: text.startIndex..<text.endIndex, options: .byWords) {
(substring, substringRange, _, _) in
if substring == "saying" {
attributedString.addAttribute(.foregroundColor, value: NSColor.red,
range: NSRange(substringRange, in: text))
}
}
print(attributedString)

Here substringRange is a Range<String.Index>, and that is converted to the
corresponding NSRange with

NSRange(substringRange, in: text)

How to convert Range in NSRange?

Xcode 11 • Swift 5.1

import Foundation

extension RangeExpression where Bound == String.Index {
func nsRange<S: StringProtocol>(in string: S) -> NSRange { .init(self, in: string) }
}

let string = "Hello USA !!! Hello World !!!"
if let nsRange = string.range(of: "Hello World")?.nsRange(in: string) {
(string as NSString).substring(with: nsRange) // "Hello World"
}

You can also create the corresponding nsRange(of:) method extending StringProtocol:

extension StringProtocol {
func nsRange<S: StringProtocol>(of string: S, options: String.CompareOptions = [], range: Range<Index>? = nil, locale: Locale? = nil) -> NSRange? {
self.range(of: string,
options: options,
range: range ?? startIndex..<endIndex,
locale: locale ?? .current)?
.nsRange(in: self)
}
func nsRanges<S: StringProtocol>(of string: S, options: String.CompareOptions = [], range: Range<Index>? = nil, locale: Locale? = nil) -> [NSRange] {
var start = range?.lowerBound ?? startIndex
let end = range?.upperBound ?? endIndex
var ranges: [NSRange] = []
while start < end,
let range = self.range(of: string,
options: options,
range: start..<end,
locale: locale ?? .current) {
ranges.append(range.nsRange(in: self))
start = range.lowerBound < range.upperBound ? range.upperBound :
index(range.lowerBound, offsetBy: 1, limitedBy: endIndex) ?? endIndex
}
return ranges
}
}

let string = "Hello USA !!! Hello World !!!"

if let nsRange = string.nsRange(of: "Hello World") {
(string as NSString).substring(with: nsRange) // "Hello World"
}
let nsRanges = string.nsRanges(of: "Hello")
print(nsRanges) // "[{0, 5}, {19, 5}]\n"

NSRange to Range String.Index

The NSString version (as opposed to Swift String) of replacingCharacters(in: NSRange, with: NSString) accepts an NSRange, so one simple solution is to convert String to NSString first. The delegate and replacement method names are slightly different in Swift 3 and 2, so depending on which Swift you're using:

Swift 3.0

func textField(_ textField: UITextField,
shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange,
replacementString string: String) -> Bool {

let nsString = textField.text as NSString?
let newString = nsString?.replacingCharacters(in: range, with: string)
}

Swift 2.x

func textField(textField: UITextField,
shouldChangeCharactersInRange range: NSRange,
replacementString string: String) -> Bool {

let nsString = textField.text as NSString?
let newString = nsString?.stringByReplacingCharactersInRange(range, withString: string)
}

How to create range in Swift?

Updated for Swift 4

Swift ranges are more complex than NSRange, and they didn't get any easier in Swift 3. If you want to try to understand the reasoning behind some of this complexity, read this and this. I'll just show you how to create them and when you might use them.

Closed Ranges: a...b

This range operator creates a Swift range which includes both element a and element b, even if b is the maximum possible value for a type (like Int.max). There are two different types of closed ranges: ClosedRange and CountableClosedRange.

1. ClosedRange

The elements of all ranges in Swift are comparable (ie, they conform to the Comparable protocol). That allows you to access the elements in the range from a collection. Here is an example:

let myRange: ClosedRange = 1...3

let myArray = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
myArray[myRange] // ["b", "c", "d"]

However, a ClosedRange is not countable (ie, it does not conform to the Sequence protocol). That means you can't iterate over the elements with a for loop. For that you need the CountableClosedRange.

2. CountableClosedRange

This is similar to the last one except now the range can also be iterated over.

let myRange: CountableClosedRange = 1...3

let myArray = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
myArray[myRange] // ["b", "c", "d"]

for index in myRange {
print(myArray[index])
}

Half-Open Ranges: a..<b

This range operator includes element a but not element b. Like above, there are two different types of half-open ranges: Range and CountableRange.

1. Range

As with ClosedRange, you can access the elements of a collection with a Range. Example:

let myRange: Range = 1..<3

let myArray = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
myArray[myRange] // ["b", "c"]

Again, though, you cannot iterate over a Range because it is only comparable, not stridable.

2. CountableRange

A CountableRange allows iteration.

let myRange: CountableRange = 1..<3

let myArray = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
myArray[myRange] // ["b", "c"]

for index in myRange {
print(myArray[index])
}

NSRange

You can (must) still use NSRange at times in Swift (when making attributed strings, for example), so it is helpful to know how to make one.

let myNSRange = NSRange(location: 3, length: 2)

Note that this is location and length, not start index and end index. The example here is similar in meaning to the Swift range 3..<5. However, since the types are different, they are not interchangeable.

Ranges with Strings

The ... and ..< range operators are a shorthand way of creating ranges. For example:

let myRange = 1..<3

The long hand way to create the same range would be

let myRange = CountableRange<Int>(uncheckedBounds: (lower: 1, upper: 3)) // 1..<3

You can see that the index type here is Int. That doesn't work for String, though, because Strings are made of Characters and not all characters are the same size. (Read this for more info.) An emoji like , for example, takes more space than the letter "b".

Problem with NSRange

Try experimenting with NSRange and an NSString with emoji and you'll see what I mean. Headache.

let myNSRange = NSRange(location: 1, length: 3)

let myNSString: NSString = "abcde"
myNSString.substring(with: myNSRange) // "bcd"

let myNSString2: NSString = "acde"
myNSString2.substring(with: myNSRange) // "c" Where is the "d"!?

The smiley face takes two UTF-16 code units to store, so it gives the unexpected result of not including the "d".

Swift Solution

Because of this, with Swift Strings you use Range<String.Index>, not Range<Int>. The String Index is calculated based on a particular string so that it knows if there are any emoji or extended grapheme clusters.

Example

var myString = "abcde"
let start = myString.index(myString.startIndex, offsetBy: 1)
let end = myString.index(myString.startIndex, offsetBy: 4)
let myRange = start..<end
myString[myRange] // "bcd"

myString = "acde"
let start2 = myString.index(myString.startIndex, offsetBy: 1)
let end2 = myString.index(myString.startIndex, offsetBy: 4)
let myRange2 = start2..<end2
myString[myRange2] // "cd"

One-sided Ranges: a... and ...b and ..<b

In Swift 4 things were simplified a bit. Whenever the starting or ending point of a range can be inferred, you can leave it off.

Int

You can use one-sided integer ranges to iterate over collections. Here are some examples from the documentation.

// iterate from index 2 to the end of the array
for name in names[2...] {
print(name)
}

// iterate from the beginning of the array to index 2
for name in names[...2] {
print(name)
}

// iterate from the beginning of the array up to but not including index 2
for name in names[..<2] {
print(name)
}

// the range from negative infinity to 5. You can't iterate forward
// over this because the starting point in unknown.
let range = ...5
range.contains(7) // false
range.contains(4) // true
range.contains(-1) // true

// You can iterate over this but it will be an infinate loop
// so you have to break out at some point.
let range = 5...

String

This also works with String ranges. If you are making a range with str.startIndex or str.endIndex at one end, you can leave it off. The compiler will infer it.

Given

var str = "Hello, playground"
let index = str.index(str.startIndex, offsetBy: 5)

let myRange = ..<index // Hello

You can go from the index to str.endIndex by using ...

var str = "Hello, playground"
let index = str.index(str.endIndex, offsetBy: -10)
let myRange = index... // playground

See also:

  • How does String.Index work in Swift
  • How does String substring work in Swift

Notes

  • You can't use a range you created with one string on a different string.
  • As you can see, String ranges are a pain in Swift, but they do make it possibly to deal better with emoji and other Unicode scalars.

Further Study

  • String Range examples
  • Range Operator documentation
  • Strings and Characters documentation

String, substring, Range, NSRange in Swift 4

Use Range(_, in:) to convert an NSRange to a Range in Swift 4.

extension String {
func substring(with nsrange: NSRange) -> Substring? {
guard let range = Range(nsrange, in: self) else { return nil }
return self[range]
}
}

How to find Multiple NSRange for a string from full string iOS swift

You say that you want to iterate through NSRange matches in a string so that you can apply a bold attribute to the relevant substrings. You could use NSRegularExpression to do that:

let range = NSRange(location: 0, length: string.count)
try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: "[0-9]+").enumerateMatches(in: string, range: range) { result, _, _ in
guard let range = result?.range else { return }
attributedString.setAttributes(boldAttributes, range: range)
}

Personally, I find it useful to have a method to return an array of Swift ranges, i.e. [Range<String.Index>]:

extension StringProtocol {
func ranges<T: StringProtocol>(of string: T, options: String.CompareOptions = []) -> [Range<Index>] {
var ranges: [Range<Index>] = []
var start: Index = startIndex

while let range = range(of: string, options: options, range: start ..< endIndex) {
ranges.append(range)

if !range.isEmpty {
start = range.upperBound // if not empty, resume search at upper bound
} else if range.lowerBound < endIndex {
start = index(after: range.lowerBound) // if empty and not at end, resume search at next character
} else {
break // if empty and at end, then quit
}
}

return ranges
}
}

Then you can use it like so:

let string = "Hello world, there are 09 continents and 195 countries."
let ranges = string.ranges(of: "[0-9]+", options: .regularExpression)

And then you can map the Range to NSRange. Going back to the original example, if you wanted to make these numbers bold in some attributed string:

string.ranges(of: "[0-9]+", options: .regularExpression)
.map { NSRange($0, in: string) }
.forEach { attributedString.setAttributes(boldAttributes, range: $0) }

Return substring from attributed string using range in Swift

The thing is you can not subscript a String using a NSRange, you have to use a Range. Try the following out:

let newRange = Range(range, in: text)
let mySubstring = text[newRange]
let myString = String(mySubstring)


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