Is there an Objective-C (NSString) Equivalent of Java's replaceAll("\\p{Cntrl}", "")?

Question

Pretty straightforward question:

Is there an Objective-C equivalent that iOS developers can use with NSString objects to do the same thing as Java's replaceAll("\p{Cntrl}", "") call on a String?

We already have this in Java:

String noControlCharsString = maybeHasControlCharsString.replaceAll("\\p{Cntrl}", "");

I want something like this in Objective-C too:

NSString *noControlCharsString = [maybeHasControlCharsString stringByReplacingControlCharsWithString:@""];

Thanks in advance.

AG3

Answer 1

Try to use this one.. This is used to replace character.

  NSString *str = @"\\p{Cntrl}AB/bar:baz\\p{Cntrl}foo";
    NSCharacterSet *doNotWant = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"\\p{Cntrl}"];
    str = [[str componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet: doNotWant] componentsJoinedByString: @""];
    NSLog(@"%@", str);

Other wise This is used to replace whole string.

   NSString *str = @"\\p{Cntrl} This is a string \\p{Cntrl}";

    str = [str stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"\\p{Cntrl}"
                                             withString:@""];

        NSLog(@"%@", str);

Answer 2

The stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString method of NSString has a NSRegularExpressionSearch option that accepts the same pattern \p{Cntrl} as your Java method:

NSString *maybeHasControlCharsString = @"\nabc\r\ndef\r";
NSString *noControlCharsString =
    [maybeHasControlCharsString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"\\p{Cntrl}"
                                       withString:@""
                                          options:NSRegularExpressionSearch
                                            range:NSMakeRange(0, [maybeHasControlCharsString length])];
NSLog(@"%@", noControlCharsString);
// Output: abcdef

Answer 3

Try:

NSString *noControlCharsString = [maybeHasControlCharsString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:controlCharacterSet];

EDIT As Martin R rightly says the above only removes any leading or trailing matches.

Here's a category method which strips all matches from the string:

- (NSString *)stringByStrippingCharactersInSet:(NSCharacterSet *)set {
    NSString *r = [self stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:set];
    NSArray *components = [r componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:set];
    components = [components filteredArrayUsingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self <> ''"]];
    return [components componentsJoinedByString:@""];
}