Objective-C Language NSString Splitting
Example
You can split a string into an array of parts, divided by a separator character.
NSString * yourString = @"Stack,Exchange,Network";
NSArray * yourWords = [yourString componentsSeparatedByString:@","];
// Output: @[@"Stack", @"Exchange", @"Network"]
If you need to split on a set of several different delimiters, use -[NSString componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:].
NSString * yourString = @"Stack Overflow+Documentation/Objective-C";
NSArray * yourWords = [yourString componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:
[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"+/"]];
// Output: @[@"Stack Overflow", @"Documentation", @"Objective-C"]`
If you need to break a string into its individual characters, loop over the length of the string and convert each character into a new string.
NSMutableArray * characters = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:[yourString length]];
for (int i = 0; i < [myString length]; i++) {
[characters addObject: [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%C",
[yourString characterAtIndex:i]];
}
As in the Length Example, keep in mind that a "character" here is a UTF-16 code unit, not necessarily what the user sees as a character. If you use this loop with @"🇮🇹", you'll see that it's split into four pieces.
In order to get a list of the user-perceived characters, use -enumerateSubstringsInRange:options:usingBlock:.
NSMutableArray * characters = [NSMutableArray array];
[yourString enumerateSubstringsInRange:(NSRange){0, [yourString length]}
options:NSStringEnumerationByComposedCharacterSequences
usingBlock:^(NSString * substring, NSRange r, NSRange s, BOOL * b){
[characters addObject:substring];
}];
This preserves grapheme clusters like the Italian flag as a single substring.
