I'm trying to test if a Swift string starts or ends with a certain value. These methods do not exist:
var str = "Hello, playground" str.startsWith("Hello") // error str.endsWith("ground") // error
I would also like to get the prefix and suffix strings. I could find a substring, as is answered here and here, but ranges are such a pain in Swift.
Is there an easier way to do it?
(I stumbled across the answer when I was reading the documentation, and since an SO answer didn't come up for my search terms, I am adding my Q&A here.)
To check if a String str1 starts with another String str2 in Swift, use String. starts() function. Call starts() function on str1 and pass str2 as argument. starts() function returns a boolean value.
The Java String class endsWith() method checks if this string ends with a given suffix. It returns true if this string ends with the given suffix; else returns false.
hasPrefix() Return Value The hasPrefix() method returns: true - if the string begins with the given string. false - if the string doesn't begin with the given string.
Updated for Swift 4
You can use the hasPrefix(_:)
and hasSuffix(_:)
methods to test equality with another String.
let str = "Hello, playground" if str.hasPrefix("Hello") { // true print("Prefix exists") } if str.hasSuffix("ground") { // true print("Suffix exists") }
In order to get the actual prefix or suffix substring, you can use one of the following methods. I recommend the first method for it's simplicity. All methods use str
as
let str = "Hello, playground"
Method 1: (Recommended) prefix(Int)
and suffix(Int)
let prefix = String(str.prefix(5)) // Hello let suffix = String(str.suffix(6)) // ground
This is the better method in my opinion. Unlike the methods 2 and 3 below, this method will not crash if the indexes go out of bounds. It will just return all the characters in the string.
let prefix = String(str.prefix(225)) // Hello, playground let suffix = String(str.suffix(623)) // Hello, playground
Of course, sometimes crashes are good because they let you know there is a problem with your code. So consider the second method below as well. It will throw an error if the index goes out of bounds.
Method 2: prefix(upto:)
and suffix(from:)
Swift String indexes are tricky because they have to take into account special characters (like emoji). However once you get the index it is easy to get the prefix or suffix. (See my other answer on String.Index
.)
let prefixIndex = str.index(str.startIndex, offsetBy: 5) let prefix = String(str.prefix(upTo: prefixIndex)) // Hello let suffixIndex = str.index(str.endIndex, offsetBy: -6) let suffix = String(str.suffix(from: suffixIndex)) // ground
If you want to guard against going out of bounds, you can make an index using limitedBy
(again, see this answer).
Method 3: subscripts
Since String is a collection, you can use subscripts to get the prefix and suffix.
let prefixIndex = str.index(str.startIndex, offsetBy: 5) let prefix = String(str[..<prefixIndex]) // Hello let suffixIndex = str.index(str.endIndex, offsetBy: -6) let suffix = String(str[suffixIndex...]) // ground
Prefix and Suffix Equality
To check whether a string has a particular string prefix or suffix, call the string’s hasPrefix(:) and hasSuffix(:) methods, both of which take a single argument of type String and return a Boolean value.
Apple Doc
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