How to split a string on iPhone?

Question

I have below the (dynamic) value from the server:

  drwxr-xr-x 9 0 0 4096 Jan 10 05:30 California

Now I want to get such a value.

  drwxr-xr-x
 9
 0
 0
 4096
 Jan 10
 05:30 
 California

Please help me in this matter.

Answer 1

As already mentioned, you can use NSString's member function componentsSeparatedByString: or componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:

Alternatively (for stronger tokenization), look at the Objective-C NSScanner class in the basic structure of Mac OS X.

You can do something like this:

 NSString *str = "drwxr-xr-x 9 0 ... "; NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:str]; 

To get each token in string form, use the NSScanner's scanUpToCharactersFromSet:intoString: member function.

 NSString *token = [NSString string]; NSCharacterSet *div = [NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]; [scanner scanUpToCharactersFromSet:div intoString:token]; // token now contains @"drwxr-xr-x" 

Subsequent calls above will return 9, 0, etc.

Note: the code above has not been tested.

Answer 2

you can try something like this

NSArray * components = [initialString componentsSeparatedByString: @ ""];

Answer 3

For the answer, answer NSString componentsSeparatedByString .

Answer 4

 [myStringValue componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]]; 

may also be helpful.

Answer 5

Use regex: RegexKitLite .

This is a “complete example” of how to use regex to do what you want with a lot of explanation, so this is a bit long answer. The regex used is just one way to do this and is "fairly permissive" in what it accepts. An example shows:

• How to combine more than one line / directory at once.
• Possible way to handle different date formats ( Jan 10 05:30 and Apr 30 2009 )
• How to create an "array of arrays" of matches.
• Iterate over the mapped array and create an NSDictionary based on the parsed results.
• Create a version of the results with commas.

Note. . The example splits some of its long lines into several lines. A string literal in the form @"string1 " @"string2" will be "automatically" concatenated by the compiler to form a string equivalent to @"string 1 string2" . I only note this because it may seem a little unusual if you are not used to it.

 #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> #import "RegexKitLite.h" int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init]; NSString *stringToMatch = @"drwxr-xr-x 9 0 0 4096 Jan 10 05:30 California\n" @"-rw-r--r-- 1 johne staff 1335 Apr 30 2009 tags.m"; // A random entry from my machine with an "older" date. NSString *regex = @"(?m)^" // (?m) means: to "have ^ and $ match new line boundaries". ^ means: "Match the start of a line". // Below, // (...) means: "Capture for extraction the matched characters". Captures start at 1, capture 0 matches "everything the regex matched". // [^\\p{Z}]+ says: "Match one or more characters that are NOT 'Separator' characters (as defined by Unicode, essentially white-space)". // In essence, '[^\\p{Z}]+' matches "One or more non-white space characters." // \\s+ says: Match one or more white space characters. // ([^\\p{Z}]+)\\s+ means: Match, and capture, the non-white space characters, then "gobble up" the white-space characters after the match. @"([^\\p{Z}]+)\\s+" // Capture 1 - Permission @"([^\\p{Z}]+)\\s+" // Capture 2 - Links (per `man ls`) @"([^\\p{Z}]+)\\s+" // Capture 3 - User @"([^\\p{Z}]+)\\s+" // Capture 4 - Group @"([^\\p{Z}]+)\\s+" // Capture 5 - Size @"(\\w{1,3}\\s+\\d+\\s+(?:\\d+:\\d+|\\d+))\\s+" // Capture 6 - The "date" part. // \\w{1,3} means: One to three "word-like" characters (ie, Jan, Sep, etc). // \\d+ means: Match one or more "digit-like" characters. // (?:...) means: Group the following, but don't capture the results. // (?:.A.|.B.) (the '|') means: Match either A, or match B. // (?:\\d+:\\d+|\\d+) means: Match either '05:30' or '2009'. @"(.*)$"; // Capture 7 - Name. .* means: "Match zero or more of any character (except newlines). $ means: Match the end of the line. // Use RegexKitLites -arrayOfCaptureComponentsMatchedByRegex to create an // "array of arrays" composed of: // an array of every match of the regex in stringToMatch, and for each match, // an array of all the captures specified in the regex. NSArray *allMatchesArray = [stringToMatch arrayOfCaptureComponentsMatchedByRegex:regex]; NSLog(@"allMatchesArray: %@", allMatchesArray); // Here, we iterate over the "array of array" and create a NSDictionary // from the results. for(NSArray *lineArray in allMatchesArray) { NSDictionary *parsedDictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys: [lineArray objectAtIndex:1], @"permission", [lineArray objectAtIndex:2], @"links", [lineArray objectAtIndex:3], @"user", [lineArray objectAtIndex:4], @"group", [lineArray objectAtIndex:5], @"size", [lineArray objectAtIndex:6], @"date", [lineArray objectAtIndex:7], @"name", NULL]; NSLog(@"parsedDictionary: %@", parsedDictionary); } // Here, we use RegexKitLites -stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfRegex method to // create a new string. We use it to essentially transform the original string // in to a "comma separated values" version of the string. // In the withString: argument, '$NUMBER' means: "The characters that were matched // by capture group NUMBER." NSString *commaSeparatedString = [stringToMatch stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfRegex:regex withString:@"$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7"]; NSLog(@"commaSeparatedString:\n%@", commaSeparatedString); [pool release]; pool = NULL; return(0); } 

Compile and run with:

 shell% gcc -Wall -Wmost -arch i386 -g -o regexExample regexExample.m RegexKitLite.m -framework Foundation -licucore shell% ./regexExample 2010-01-14 00:10:38.868 regexExample[49409:903] allMatchesArray: ( ( "drwxr-xr-x 9 0 0 4096 Jan 10 05:30 California", "drwxr-xr-x", 9, 0, 0, 4096, "Jan 10 05:30", California ), ( "-rw-r--r-- 1 johne staff 1335 Apr 30 2009 tags.m", "-rw-r--r--", 1, johne, staff, 1335, "Apr 30 2009", "tags.m" ) ) 2010-01-14 00:10:38.872 regexExample[49409:903] parsedDictionary: { date = "Jan 10 05:30"; group = 0; links = 9; name = California; permission = "drwxr-xr-x"; size = 4096; user = 0; } 2010-01-14 00:10:38.873 regexExample[49409:903] parsedDictionary: { date = "Apr 30 2009"; group = staff; links = 1; name = "tags.m"; permission = "-rw-r--r--"; size = 1335; user = johne; } 2010-01-14 00:10:38.873 regexExample[49409:903] commaSeparatedString: drwxr-xr-x,9,0,0,4096,Jan 10 05:30,California -rw-r--r--,1,johne,staff,1335,Apr 30 2009,tags.m