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String First Words
This page was last reviewed on Sep 13, 2023.
Dot Net Perls
First words. Sometimes it is necessary to have a function that gets only the first several words in a string. This can be helpful for user interfaces.
With Swift, we can count the first words, and return a new string containing just those words. We must take a substring for this function.
String Substring
func
Example. To begin, we introduce the firstWords function. This receives a String containing the original text, and an integer that indicates the desired number of words.
Step 1 We loop over the source string with the enumerated() function, which returns indexes and characters.
for
Step 2 We detect space characters. When a space is encountered, we reduce the remaining words count.
Step 3 Here compute the string range by using startIndex and the index() function. We return a String based on that substring.
Step 4 If the number of words specified was more than the number of spaces in the string, we just return the original.
func firstWords(source: String, count: Int) -> String { var words = count // Step 1: use enumerated over string. for (i, c) in source.enumerated() { // Step 2: check for space, and decrement words count. if c == " " { words -= 1 if words == 0 { // Step 3: get range for substring and return it. let r = source.startIndex..<source.index(source.startIndex, offsetBy: i) return String(source[r]) } } } // Step 4: return original string. return source } let value = "there are many reasons" // Test the first words method. let result1 = firstWords(source: value, count: 2) print(result1) let result2 = firstWords(source: value, count: 3) print(result2) let result3 = firstWords(source: value, count: 100) print(result3)
there are there are many there are many reasons
Summary. With Swift it is possible to develop simple char-counting methods that return substrings. The code is clear and reliable, and can be extended for more complex purposes.
Dot Net Perls is a collection of tested code examples. Pages are continually updated to stay current, with code correctness a top priority.
Sam Allen is passionate about computer languages. In the past, his work has been recommended by Apple and Microsoft and he has studied computers at a selective university in the United States.
This page was last updated on Sep 13, 2023 (new).
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