How do I check if a string contains another string in Objective-C?

NSString *string = @"hello bla bla";
if ([string rangeOfString:@"bla"].location == NSNotFound) {
  NSLog(@"string does not contain bla");
} else {
  NSLog(@"string contains bla!");
}

The key is noticing that rangeOfString: returns an NSRange struct, and the documentation says that it returns the struct {NSNotFound, 0} if the "haystack" does not contain the "needle".

---

And if you're on iOS 8 or OS X Yosemite, you can now do: (*NOTE: This WILL crash your app if this code is called on an iOS7 device).

NSString *string = @"hello bla blah";
if ([string containsString:@"bla"]) {
  NSLog(@"string contains bla!");
} else {
  NSLog(@"string does not contain bla");
}

(This is also how it would work in Swift)

👍

Since this seems to be a high-ranking result in Google, I want to add this:

iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 add the containsString: method to NSString. An updated version of Dave DeLong's example for those systems:

NSString *string = @"hello bla bla";
if ([string containsString:@"bla"]) {
    NSLog(@"string contains bla!");
} else {
    NSLog(@"string does not contain bla");
}

NSString *myString = @"hello bla bla";
NSRange rangeValue = [myString rangeOfString:@"hello" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch];

if (rangeValue.length > 0)
{
    NSLog(@"string contains hello");
} 
else 
{
    NSLog(@"string does not contain hello!");
}

//You can alternatively use following too :

if (rangeValue.location == NSNotFound) 
{
    NSLog(@"string does not contain hello");
} 
else 
{
    NSLog(@"string contains hello!");
}

For iOS 8.0+ and macOS 10.10+, you can use NSString's native containsString:.

For older versions of iOS and macOS, you can create your own (obsolete) category for NSString:

@interface NSString ( SubstringSearch )
    - (BOOL)containsString:(NSString *)substring;
@end

// - - - - 

@implementation NSString ( SubstringSearch )

- (BOOL)containsString:(NSString *)substring
{    
    NSRange range = [self rangeOfString : substring];
    BOOL found = ( range.location != NSNotFound );
    return found;
}

@end

Note: Observe Daniel Galasko's comment below regarding naming