Find certain character and substring in Objective-C

Question

I have a string..

NSString* string = @"%B999999^PDVS123456789012^PADILLA L.                    ^0X0000399           ?*;999999554749123456789012=00X990300000?*

What I want is to get the name PADILLA L. and 999999554749123456789012=00X990300000?*

rmaddy · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-23 01:29:51Z

4

Use NSString componentsSeparatedByString: to split the string up. First use @"^". The name will be at index 2. Then split the substring at index 3 using @";". The string at index 1 will give you the 2nd piece you want.

NSArray *substrings = [string componentsSeparatedByString:@"^"];
NSString *name = substrings[2];
name = [name stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]];
NSString *lastpart = substrings[3];
NSArray *moresubstrings = [lastpart componentsSeparatedByString:@";"];
NSString *secondPiece = moresubstrings[1];

answered Nov 23, 2012 at 1:29

rmaddy

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Comments

Ricky Nelson · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-23 01:41:10Z

0

Without more specifics here is a brute force way:

NSString* string = @"%B999999^PDVS123456789012^PADILLA L.                    ^0X0000399           ?*;999999554749123456789012=00X990300000?*";
NSRange nameRange = {26, 10};
NSString *name = [string substringWithRange:nameRange];
NSRange numRange = {80, 39};
NSString *num = [string substringWithRange:numRange];

The documentation is your friend: NSString Class Reference

answered Nov 23, 2012 at 1:41

Ricky Nelson

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2 Comments

rmaddy Over a year ago

Keep in mind that this solution is only valid if the data is guaranteed to be fixed length.

n0minal Over a year ago

yes. exactly. I mean I appreciate your answer but hardcoding the range would not be very wise. But nevertheless thank you for your answer. :)

FluffulousChimp · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-23 02:13:49Z

Without knowing what the exact input pattern is (we have your n-of-1 example only), it's going to hard to say exactly how you might parse this properly; but NSRegularExpression offers what you need (in addition to other suggested approaches):

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    @autoreleasepool {
        NSString *sampleText = @"%B999999^PDVS123456789012^PADILLA L.                    ^0X0000399           ?*;999999554749123456789012=00X990300000?*";
        NSError *regexError = nil;
        NSRegularExpressionOptions options = 0;
        NSString *pattern = @"^%\\w+\\^\\w+\\^([A-Za-z\\s]+\\.).+\\?\\*\\;(.+)\\?\\*$";
        NSRegularExpression *expression = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:pattern options:options error:&regexError];

        NSTextCheckingResult *match = [expression firstMatchInString:sampleText options:0 range:range];
        if( match ) {
            NSRange nameRange = [match rangeAtIndex:1];
            NSRange numberRange = [match rangeAtIndex:2];

            printf("name = %s ",[[sampleText substringWithRange:nameRange] UTF8String]);
            printf("number = %s\n",[[sampleText substringWithRange:numberRange] UTF8String]);
        }
    }
}

This little Foundation application prints the following to the console:

name = PADILLA L. number = 999999554749123456789012=00X990300000

The regex used to analyze the input string may need to be tweaked depending on how the input string varies. Right now it is (unescaped):

^%\w+\^\w+\^([A-Za-z\s]+\.).+\?\*\;(.+)\?\*$

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