How to use NSScanner?

NSScanner is a linear scanner. You have to scan through the stuff you don't want to get to what you do want.

You could do [aScanner scanUpToCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] intoString:NULL] to jump past everything up to the number character. Then you do [aScanner scanInteger:&anInteger] to scan the character into an integer.

Here is a simple solution using NSScanner (yes, @NSResponder has a really neat solution!):

NSString *logString = @"user logged (3 attempts)";
NSString *numberString;
NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:logString];
[scanner scanUpToCharactersFromSet:[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] intoString:nil];
[scanner scanCharactersFromSet:[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] intoString:&numberString];
NSLog(@"Attempts: %i", [numberString intValue]);

NSLog output:

Attempts: 3

`Here is what I do to get certain values out of a string

First I have this method defined

- (NSString *)getDataBetweenFromString:(NSString *)data leftString:(NSString *)leftData rightString:(NSString *)rightData leftOffset:(NSInteger)leftPos; 
{         
    NSInteger left, right;         
    NSString *foundData;
    NSScanner *scanner=[NSScanner scannerWithString:data];                  
    [scanner scanUpToString:leftData intoString: nil];         
    left = [scanner scanLocation];         
    [scanner setScanLocation:left + leftPos];         
    [scanner scanUpToString:rightData intoString: nil];         
    right = [scanner scanLocation] + 1;         
    left += leftPos;         
    foundData = [data substringWithRange: NSMakeRange(left, (right - left) - 1)];         return foundData; 
}

Then call it.

foundData = [self getDataBetweenFromString:data leftString:@"user logged (" rightString:@"attempts)" leftOffset:13];

leftOffset is the number of characters for the left string

Could be an easier cleaner way but that was my solution.

Ziltoid's solution works, but it's more code than you need.

I wouldn't bother instantiating an NSScanner for the given situation. NSCharacterSet and NSString give you all you need:

    NSString *logString = @"user logged (3 attempts)";
    NSString *digits = [logString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:
         [[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] invertedSet]];
    NSLog(@"Attempts: %i", [digits intValue]);

or in Swift:

    let logString = "user logged (3 attempts)"
    let nonDigits = NSCharacterSet.decimalDigitCharacterSet().invertedSet
    let digits : NSString = logString.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(nonDigits)
    NSLog("Attempts: %i", digits.intValue)