how to convert NSString to NSArray

Question

I have a string like

NSString* str = @"[90, 5, 6]";

I need to convert it to an array like

NSArray * numbers = [90, 5 , 6];

I did a quite long way like this:


+ (NSArray*) stringToArray:(NSString*)str
{
    NSString *sep = @"[,";
    NSCharacterSet *set = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:sep];
    NSArray *temp=[str componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:set];

    NSMutableArray* numbers = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    for (NSString* s in temp) {
        NSNumber *n = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:[s integerValue]];
        [numbers addObject:n];
    }

    return numbers;
}

Is there any neat and quick way to do such conversion?

Thanks

score 13 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

First remove the unwanted characters from the string, like white spaces and braces:

NSString* str = @"[90, 5, 6]";
NSCharacterSet* characterSet = [[NSCharacterSet
                                 characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"0123456789,"] invertedSet];
NSString* newString = [[str componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:characterSet]
                       componentsJoinedByString:@""];

You will have a string like this: 90,5,6. Then simply split using the comma and convert to NSNumber:

NSArray* arrayOfStrings = [newString componentsSeparatedByString:@","];
NSMutableArray* arrayOfNumbers = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:arrayOfStrings.count];
for (NSString* string in arrayOfStrings) {
    [arrayOfNumbers addObject:[NSDecimalNumber decimalNumberWithString:string]];
}

Using the NSString category from this response it can be simplified to:

NSArray* arrayOfStrings = [newString componentsSeparatedByString:@","];
NSArray* arrayOfNumbers = [arrayOfStrings valueForKey: @"decimalNumberValue"];

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited May 24 '16 at 12:39

5

NSString* str = @"[90, 5, 6]";
NSCharacterSet *characterSet = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"[] "];
NSArray *array = [[[str componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:characterSet]
                        componentsJoinedByString:@""]     
                        componentsSeparatedByString:@","];

edited May 24 '16 at 12:39

Aviram Netanel

12,633
9
45
69

answered Aug 26 '14 at 09:13

Buntylm

7,345
1
31
51

why don't you just _sepatatedByString_ with `@", "`? anyway (+1) because that could be the most light-hearted and working solution. – holex Aug 26 '14 at 09:20
@holex Yeah, we can add `whitespace` with `NSCharacterSet` as i edited `@"[] "` will be good and thanks a lot for your comment. – Buntylm Aug 26 '14 at 09:31

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 26 '14 at 09:10

2

Try like this

NSArray *arr = [string componentsSeparatedByString:@","];

answered Aug 26 '14 at 09:10

Ganesh Kumar

708
6
25

but I still have "[", and another thing is the returned array contains NSString elements instead of NSInteger elements – chipbk10 Aug 26 '14 at 09:11
`[string stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];` `[string stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"[]"]];` ;) – geo Aug 26 '14 at 09:13
@chipbk10 use like this NSArray *Arr = [Str componentsSeparatedByString:@","]; [Arr objectAtIndex:0];//90 [Arr objectAtIndex:1];//5 [Arr objectAtIndex:2];//6 – Ganesh Kumar Aug 26 '14 at 09:23

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 26 '14 at 09:13

1

NSString *newSTR = [str stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"[" withString:@""];

newSTR = [newSTR stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"]" withString:@""];

NSArray *items = [newSTR componentsSeparatedByString:@","];

answered Aug 26 '14 at 09:13

Mutawe

6,464
3
47
90

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 26 '14 at 09:20

You can achieve that using regular expression　

([0-9]+)

NSError* error = nil;
NSString* str = @"[90, 5, 6]";
NSRegularExpression* regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:@"([0-9]+)" options:0 error:&error];
NSArray* matches = [regex matchesInString:str options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, [str length])];

Then you have a NSArray of string, you just need to iterate it and convert the strings to number and insert them into an array.

how to convert NSString to NSArray

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