Finding index of character in Swift String
Swift 3.0 makes this a bit more verbose:
let string = "Hello.World"
let needle: Character = "."
if let idx = string.characters.index(of: needle) {
let pos = string.characters.distance(from: string.startIndex, to: idx)
print("Found \(needle) at position \(pos)")
}
else {
print("Not found")
}
Extension:
extension String {
public func index(of char: Character) -> Int? {
if let idx = characters.index(of: char) {
return characters.distance(from: startIndex, to: idx)
}
return nil
}
}
In Swift 2.0 this has become easier:
let string = "Hello.World"
let needle: Character = "."
if let idx = string.characters.indexOf(needle) {
let pos = string.startIndex.distanceTo(idx)
print("Found \(needle) at position \(pos)")
}
else {
print("Not found")
}
Extension:
extension String {
public func indexOfCharacter(char: Character) -> Int? {
if let idx = self.characters.indexOf(char) {
return self.startIndex.distanceTo(idx)
}
return nil
}
}
Swift 1.x implementation:
For a pure Swift solution one can use:
let string = "Hello.World"
let needle: Character = "."
if let idx = find(string, needle) {
let pos = distance(string.startIndex, idx)
println("Found \(needle) at position \(pos)")
}
else {
println("Not found")
}
As an extension to String
:
extension String {
public func indexOfCharacter(char: Character) -> Int? {
if let idx = find(self, char) {
return distance(self.startIndex, idx)
}
return nil
}
}
You are not the only one who couldn't find the solution.
String
doesn't implement RandomAccessIndexType
. Probably because they enable characters with different byte lengths. That's why we have to use string.characters.count
(count
or countElements
in Swift 1.x) to get the number of characters. That also applies to positions. The _position
is probably an index into the raw array of bytes and they don't want to expose that. The String.Index
is meant to protect us from accessing bytes in the middle of characters.
That means that any index you get must be created from String.startIndex
or String.endIndex
(String.Index
implements BidirectionalIndexType
). Any other indices can be created using successor
or predecessor
methods.
Now to help us with indices, there is a set of methods (functions in Swift 1.x):
Swift 4.x
let text = "abc"
let index2 = text.index(text.startIndex, offsetBy: 2) //will call succ 2 times
let lastChar: Character = text[index2] //now we can index!
let characterIndex2 = text.index(text.startIndex, offsetBy: 2)
let lastChar2 = text[characterIndex2] //will do the same as above
let range: Range<String.Index> = text.range(of: "b")!
let index: Int = text.distance(from: text.startIndex, to: range.lowerBound)
Swift 3.0
let text = "abc"
let index2 = text.index(text.startIndex, offsetBy: 2) //will call succ 2 times
let lastChar: Character = text[index2] //now we can index!
let characterIndex2 = text.characters.index(text.characters.startIndex, offsetBy: 2)
let lastChar2 = text.characters[characterIndex2] //will do the same as above
let range: Range<String.Index> = text.range(of: "b")!
let index: Int = text.distance(from: text.startIndex, to: range.lowerBound)
Swift 2.x
let text = "abc"
let index2 = text.startIndex.advancedBy(2) //will call succ 2 times
let lastChar: Character = text[index2] //now we can index!
let lastChar2 = text.characters[index2] //will do the same as above
let range: Range<String.Index> = text.rangeOfString("b")!
let index: Int = text.startIndex.distanceTo(range.startIndex) //will call successor/predecessor several times until the indices match
Swift 1.x
let text = "abc"
let index2 = advance(text.startIndex, 2) //will call succ 2 times
let lastChar: Character = text[index2] //now we can index!
let range = text.rangeOfString("b")
let index: Int = distance(text.startIndex, range.startIndex) //will call succ/pred several times
Working with String.Index
is cumbersome but using a wrapper to index by integers (see https://stackoverflow.com/a/25152652/669586) is dangerous because it hides the inefficiency of real indexing.
Note that Swift indexing implementation has the problem that indices/ranges created for one string cannot be reliably used for a different string, for example:
Swift 2.x
let text: String = "abc"
let text2: String = "ð¾ðð"
let range = text.rangeOfString("b")!
//can randomly return a bad substring or throw an exception
let substring: String = text2[range]
//the correct solution
let intIndex: Int = text.startIndex.distanceTo(range.startIndex)
let startIndex2 = text2.startIndex.advancedBy(intIndex)
let range2 = startIndex2...startIndex2
let substring: String = text2[range2]
Swift 1.x
let text: String = "abc"
let text2: String = "ð¾ðð"
let range = text.rangeOfString("b")
//can randomly return nil or a bad substring
let substring: String = text2[range]
//the correct solution
let intIndex: Int = distance(text.startIndex, range.startIndex)
let startIndex2 = advance(text2.startIndex, intIndex)
let range2 = startIndex2...startIndex2
let substring: String = text2[range2]