Suppose I have the following string:
bla bla bla bla i don't know what to write START name 1 END more bla bla bla bla i don't know what to write START name 2 END more bla bla bla bla i don't know what to write START name 3 END
And I want to extract the following array:
name 1
name 2
name 3
What is the best way to do it with the iOS SDK?
Try this:
NSArray *names = [yourString componentsSeparatedByString:@"START"];
NSArray *namesArray = [NSArray array];
for (int i = 1; i < [names count]; i++) {
NSString *thisLine = [names objectAtIndex:i];
NSString *name = [thisLine substringToIndex:[thisLine rangeOfString:@"END"].location];
[namesArray addObject:name];
NSLog(@"Your name: %@", name);
}
Just noticed you wanted this with Regex... This is not that of course, but maybe it helps!
Use
NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:@"(?<=START ).*?(?= END)"
See also Use regular expression to find/replace substring in NSString
To do this with regex:
(?<=START\s)(.+?)(?=\sEND)
