How do I bold multiple instances of a character in an NSString?

Question

I have a string like the following :

NSString *a = @"* This is a text String \n * Followed by another text String \n * Followed by a third"

I need to print it as three lines. Now, I wanted the Asterix points in it to be bolded. So I tried :

NSMutableAttributedString *att = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:a];
[att addAddtribute:NSFontAttributeName value:SOMEBOLDFONT range:[a rangeOfString:@"*"]];

But this only bolds the second and third asterix. How do I get them all bold?

That code isn't going to compile. I would really recommend that you post the actual code that you are asking about. — gnasher729, Apr 04 '16 at 14:42

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 19 '14 at 21:20

1

rangeOfString Returns only one range not all the range. Loop and set all the ranges

NSRange range = [event1 rangeOfString:@"*"];

while (range.length > 0)
{
    [att addAddtribute:NSFontAttributeName value:SOMEBOLDFONT range:[a rangeOfString:@"*"]];
     //check for the presence of * in the rest of the string
    range = [[event1 substringFromIndex:(range.location + range.length)] rangeOfString:@"*"];
}

answered May 19 '14 at 21:20

nprd

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Thanks. This was a pretty neat answer as well. – gran_profaci May 20 '14 at 21:43

picciano · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-21T17:30:58.747

As others have mentioned, you need to loop through the string to return multiple ranges. This would work:

NSString *a = @"* This is a text String \n* Followed by another text String \n* Followed by a third";
NSMutableAttributedString *att = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:a];
NSRange foundRange = [a rangeOfString:@"*"];

while (foundRange.location != NSNotFound)
{
    [att addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:[UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:20.0f] range:foundRange];

    NSRange rangeToSearch;
    rangeToSearch.location = foundRange.location + foundRange.length;
    rangeToSearch.length = a.length - rangeToSearch.location;
    foundRange = [a rangeOfString:@"*" options:0 range:rangeToSearch];
}

[[self textView] setAttributedText:att];

Went with this in the end. Thanks! – gran_profaci May 20 '14 at 21:43 — gran_profaci, May 20 '14 at 21:43

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

You need to find each time the "*" character is encountered in your string.

And to do that, you can use a routine like the one found in this related question.

The only thing you'd need to remove this line from the code:

[mutableAttributedString setTextColor:color range:NSMakeRange(range.location, 1)];

and replace it with your code:

 [mutableAttributedString addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:SOMEBOLDFONT range:NSMakeRange(range.location, 1)];

How do I bold multiple instances of a character in an NSString?

3 Answers3