Use regex to find and extract substrings from a string

Question

Suppose I have the following string:

bla bla bla bla i don't know what to write START name 1 END more bla bla bla bla i don't know what to write START name 2 END more bla bla bla bla i don't know what to write START name 3 END

And I want to extract the following array:

name 1

name 2

name 3

What is the best way to do it with the iOS SDK?

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 15 '12 at 12:48

Try this:

NSArray *names = [yourString componentsSeparatedByString:@"START"];

NSArray *namesArray = [NSArray array];

for (int i = 1; i < [names count]; i++) {
    NSString *thisLine = [names objectAtIndex:i];
    NSString *name = [thisLine substringToIndex:[thisLine rangeOfString:@"END"].location];

    [namesArray addObject:name];
    NSLog(@"Your name: %@", name);
}

Just noticed you wanted this with Regex... This is not that of course, but maybe it helps!

indeed, this is a solution! +1 that it helps me, but i'm pretty curious how I could do it with Regex — Natan R., Nov 15 '12 at 13:05

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

1

Use

NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:@"(?<=START ).*?(?= END)"

See also Use regular expression to find/replace substring in NSString

edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

Community

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answered Nov 15 '12 at 13:22

Ωmega

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 15 '12 at 13:23

0

To do this with regex:

(?<=START\s)(.+?)(?=\sEND)

answered Nov 15 '12 at 13:23

garyh

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Use regex to find and extract substrings from a string

3 Answers3