NSString manipulation. Remove only date

Question

If I have a NSString at looks like:

2-13-2014 Norway vs Canada Per 1 20-00 2

Its being parsed and the dates will change

How do I make it turn into

Norway vs Canada Per 1

In other words, drop the date and extra characters at the end.

Iv'e used:

NSArray * dateComponents = [cleanString
                            componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:
                            [NSCharacterSet
                             characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"-"]];

cleanString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", [dateComponents objectAtIndex:2]];

output:

2014 Norway vs Canada Per 1 20

Thanks

I doubt that the output would be `2014 Norway vs Canada Per 1 20`. it should be `2` — vikingosegundo, Aug 21 '14 at 20:33

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 21 '14 at 20:18

1

Split on spaces. Then drop the first component and the last two components.

NSString *input = @"2-13-2014 Norway vs Canada Per 1 20-00 2";

NSArray *words = [input componentsSeparatedByString:@" "];
words = [words subarrayWithRange:NSMakeRange(1, words.count - 3)];
NSString *output = [words componentsJoinedByString:@" "];

answered Aug 21 '14 at 20:18

rob mayoff

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Except that will cause you to lose any extra blanks in the remainder of the line, which may or may not be acceptable. Probably better is to scan for the first non-blank after the first blank, then truncate there. – Hot Licks Aug 21 '14 at 20:22
If you think that would be better, just post it as an answer. – rob mayoff Aug 21 '14 at 20:29
2

Nah, I'm too lazy to do that. – Hot Licks Aug 21 '14 at 20:37

Rob · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-21T21:12:06.170

If the format is consistently in a particular format you can use regular expressions. For example, if the format is always:

dd-dd-dddd xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx dd-dd d

Thus if you just want the Norway vs Canada Per 1 from your example (i.e. the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx from above), you could:

NSError *error;
NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:@"^\\s*\\d{1,2}-\\d{1,2}-\\d{2,4}\\s+(.+)\\s+\\d{1,2}-\\d{1,2}\\s*\\d\\s*$" options:0 error:&error];

NSTextCheckingResult *result = [regex firstMatchInString:string options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, [string length])];
if (result) {
    NSRange range = [result rangeAtIndex:1];             // find the NSRange for the stuff in the parentheses
    NSString *found = [string substringWithRange:range]; // get the string for that range
    NSLog(@"found = '%@'", found);
}

If you need help deciphering the regex, I might refer you to the NSRegularExpression documentation.

NSString manipulation. Remove only date

2 Answers2