Replace occurrences of space in URL

Question

I have a URL in an iPhone application to work with. But the problem is that it has some spaces in the URL. I want to replace the spaces with '%20'. I know that there are the stringByReplacingOccurencesOfString and stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding methods. I also have used them. But they are not working for me. The spaces are replaced by some unusual values.

I'm applying those methods on an instance of NSString.

Check out this post here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/695911/question-about-character-of-nsstring-invalid-in-url-on-iphone The Answer: NSString* escapedUrl = [originalUrl stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]; — Tieme, Jun 12 '11 at 18:23

Raj · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-29T02:26:29.203

169

The correct format for replacing space from url is :

Swift 4.2 , Swift 5

var urlString = originalString.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlQueryAllowed)

Swift 4

var urlString = originalString.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: CharacterSet.urlQueryAllowed)

Objective C

NSString *urlString;//your url string.

urlString = [originalUrl stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@" " withString:@"%20"];

or

urlString = [originalUrl stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

iOS 9 and later

urlString = [originalUrl stringByAddingPercentEncodingWithAllowedCharacters:[NSCharacterSet URLQueryAllowedCharacterSet]];

edited Nov 29 '19 at 02:26

answered Mar 04 '11 at 09:55

Raj

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@RaquibulIslam I edited my answer , please check now – Raj Mar 19 '15 at 15:00
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I think stringByReplacingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding() is deprecated. Instead, we can use stringByRemovingPercentEncoding – girish_vr Feb 05 '16 at 04:30
will it work for local path? i mean for documents dir – guru Jun 25 '20 at 09:45
@guru I don't think you need to format path for local document dir – Raj Jul 30 '20 at 05:37

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 20 '15 at 05:20

9

Swift 2.0

let originalUrl = "http://myurl.com/my photo.png"
let urlNew:String = urlReq.stringByAddingPercentEncodingWithAllowedCharacters( NSCharacterSet.URLQueryAllowedCharacterSet())!

Output:

http://myurl.com/my%20photo.png

answered Oct 20 '15 at 05:20

Dasoga

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score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 30 '17 at 02:21

6

To replace occurence in SWIFT 3 :

let updatedUrl = originalUrl.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: NSCharacterSet.urlQueryAllowed)

edited Aug 30 '17 at 02:21

Amit

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answered Jun 27 '17 at 08:13

Jitendra Tanwar

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will it work for local path? i mean for documents dir – guru Jun 25 '20 at 09:46

Gilad Brunfman · Answer 4 · 2019-01-17T15:43:04.920

5

Swift 4

Another way to replace an empty space with replacingOccurrences method:

let yourString = "http://myurl.com/my photo.png"
let urlNew:String = yourString.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "%20").trimmed

That will replace the empty space (" ") with '%20'

edited Jan 17 '19 at 15:43

answered Feb 08 '17 at 20:15

Gilad Brunfman

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error : Value of type 'String' has no member 'trim' – Sabrina Jan 17 '19 at 15:27
@Mehdico that is odd, I always trim my strings. At this example you don’t have to trim the string since you know what it is. But I’d clean the project and try to run it again. at the end of the string add *.trimmed* – Gilad Brunfman Jan 17 '19 at 15:37
dude i think you use an extension for String class, because .trimmed is not found in swift 4 and 4.2 – Sabrina Jan 18 '19 at 10:19
You don’t have to trim the string in order to replace white space – Gilad Brunfman Jan 18 '19 at 10:21
Try this for encoding :- stringByAddingPercentEncodingWithAllowedCharacters: URLPathAllowedCharacterSet and for decoding :- [NSURL fileURLWithPath:[self.yourString stringByRemovingPercentEncoding]] – Shrikant Phadke Mar 10 '20 at 05:00
will it work for local path? i mean for documents dir – guru Jun 25 '20 at 09:46

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 30 '19 at 07:46

3

Swift 5

var urlString = originalString.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlQueryAllowed)

answered Apr 30 '19 at 07:46

Shakeel Ahmed

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will it work for local path? i mean for documents dir – guru Jun 25 '20 at 09:46

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 25 '23 at 02:04

The quickest solution: just use the stringy method...

.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "%20")

...at the end of your string, and it will do as it says.

Apple should be EMBARRASSED that their URL(string: ) method doesn't automatically do this (and more). It's 2023 and I wasted 3 hours finding this half-assed solution.

My specific example was inside cellForItemAt and having to do with optionals.

let stringOfImageURLFromFirebase = wordController?.word?.images[indexPath.item].imgUrl

let stringWithNoSpaces = string?.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "%20")

if let imageURLString = stringWithNoSpaces,
   let imageURL = URL(string: imageURLString) {
         cell.definitionImageView.loadImageFromFirebase(url: imageURL)
    } else {
        cell.definitionImageView.image = UIImage(named: "slictionarylogo")
    }

You can fuddle with .addingPercentEncoding for a long time, try NSURL nonsense, and you'll just be faster with using the obvious. Apple sucks, and should've made this painfully easy since it's such a common problem. Again, they are asleep at the wheel, and their documentation is AWFUL too.

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 25 '19 at 14:18

0

var urlString :String = originalUrl.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: NSCharacterSet.urlQueryAllowed)!

edited Jun 25 '19 at 14:18

Sangram Shivankar

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answered Jun 12 '18 at 03:16

samaujs

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You need to give more of an explanation to this code. There are others coming to this question looking for understanding not just code. Help others as well. – wesley franks Jun 25 '19 at 16:50

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 26 '19 at 22:41

Hope this will work

let url = "https:youtube.56432fgrtxcvfname=xyz&sname=tuv"
let urlNew:String = url.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "%20")
Alamofire.request(urlNew, method: .get, headers: headers).responseJSON{
response in
print(response)    
}

It will remove all kind of spaces from the url.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 19 '20 at 20:51

0

Swift 5.3, clear space your string,

let str = "  www.test.com  "
let trimmed = str.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines)
print(str) // "www.test.com"

answered Jun 19 '20 at 20:51

ikbal

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score -1 · Answer 10 · edited Aug 17 '17 at 10:47

-1

SWIFT 3.1

Simple way to replace an empty space with replacingOccurrences:

URL = URL.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "", options: .literal, range: nil)

edited Aug 17 '17 at 10:47

MLavoie

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answered Aug 17 '17 at 10:04

Shibin k kurian

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Doesn't work as URL has no member 'replacingOccurences'. String has that method but URL doesn't. – shiv Sep 17 '19 at 21:42

score -1 · Answer 11 · edited Nov 05 '17 at 06:45

-1

Swift 4, iOS-9

let **urlSearchVal**:String = "top 10 movies"     
let urlString = 

    "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&q=\(urlSearchVal)&key=......&type=video"   
//replace ...... above with your youtube key   
// to ignoring white space in search  
        let UrlString :String = urlString.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: NSCharacterSet.urlQueryAllowed)!

edited Nov 05 '17 at 06:45

Cyber Progs

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answered Nov 05 '17 at 01:38

that guy

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welcome to SO. please improve the quality of you answer – Neuron Nov 05 '17 at 02:10

score -1 · Answer 12 · answered Mar 11 '19 at 12:49

-1

A Swift 4 solution. You simply pass through a string and it fills spaces with %20 and adds "http://" to the beginning to the string. Pretty sweet!

URL(fileURLWithPath: String)

answered Mar 11 '19 at 12:49

KDiaz

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Replace occurrences of space in URL

12 Answers12