Remove all non-numeric characters from a string in swift

I was hoping there would be something like stringFromCharactersInSet() which would allow me to specify only valid characters to keep.

You can either use trimmingCharacters with the inverted character set to remove characters from the start or the end of the string. In Swift 3 and later:

let result = string.trimmingCharacters(in: CharacterSet(charactersIn: "0123456789.").inverted)

Or, if you want to remove non-numeric characters anywhere in the string (not just the start or end), you can filter the characters, e.g. in Swift 4.2.1:

let result = string.filter("0123456789.".contains)

Or, if you want to remove characters from a CharacterSet from anywhere in the string, use:

let result = String(string.unicodeScalars.filter(CharacterSet.whitespaces.inverted.contains))

Or, if you want to only match valid strings of a certain format (e.g. ####.##), you could use regular expression. For example:

if let range = string.range(of: #"\d+(\.\d*)?"#, options: .regularExpression) {
    let result = string[range] // or `String(string[range])` if you need `String`
}

The behavior of these different approaches differ slightly so it just depends on precisely what you're trying to do. Include or exclude the decimal point if you want decimal numbers, or just integers. There are lots of ways to accomplish this.

For older, Swift 2 syntax, see previous revision of this answer.


You can filter the UnicodeScalarView of the string using the pattern matching operator for ranges, pass a UnicodeScalar ClosedRange from 0 to 9 and initialise a new String with the resulting UnicodeScalarView:

extension String {
    private static var digits = UnicodeScalar("0")..."9"
    var digits: String {
        return String(unicodeScalars.filter(String.digits.contains))
    }
}

"abc12345".digits   // "12345"

edit/update:

Swift 4.2

extension RangeReplaceableCollection where Self: StringProtocol {
    var digits: Self {
        return filter(("0"..."9").contains)
    }
}

or as a mutating method

extension RangeReplaceableCollection where Self: StringProtocol {
    mutating func removeAllNonNumeric() {
        removeAll { !("0"..."9" ~= $0) }
    }
}

Swift 5.2 • Xcode 11.4 or later

In Swift5 we can use a new Character property called isWholeNumber:

extension RangeReplaceableCollection where Self: StringProtocol {
    var digits: Self { filter(\.isWholeNumber) }
}

extension RangeReplaceableCollection where Self: StringProtocol {
    mutating func removeAllNonNumeric() {
        removeAll { !$0.isWholeNumber }
    }
}

To allow a period as well we can extend Character and create a computed property:

extension Character {
    var isDecimalOrPeriod: Bool { "0"..."9" ~= self || self == "." }
}

extension RangeReplaceableCollection where Self: StringProtocol {
    var digitsAndPeriods: Self { filter(\.isDecimalOrPeriod) }
}

Playground testing:

"abc12345".digits   // "12345"

var str = "123abc0"
str.removeAllNonNumeric()
print(str) //"1230"

"Testing0123456789.".digitsAndPeriods // "0123456789."


let result = string.stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString("[^0-9]", withString: "", options: NSStringCompareOptions.RegularExpressionSearch, range:nil).stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(NSCharacterSet.whitespaceCharacterSet())

Swift 3

let result = string.replacingOccurrences( of:"[^0-9]", with: "", options: .regularExpression)

You can upvote this answer.


I prefer this solution, because I like extensions, and it seems a bit cleaner to me. Solution reproduced here:

extension String {
    var digits: String {
        return components(separatedBy: CharacterSet.decimalDigits.inverted)
            .joined()
    }
}

Tags:

Swift

Nscharacterset

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