How to convert NSHTTPURLResponse to String in Swift

Question

I would like to convert my response from the NSHTTPURLResponse type to String:

let task = session.dataTaskWithRequest(request, completionHandler: {(data, response, error) -> Void in 
     println("Response: \(response)")
     var responseText: String = String(data: response, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)
})

The line below outputs the response message to the console.

println("Response: \(response)")

But this line renders me an error: Extra argument 'encoding' in Call.

var responseText: String = String(data: response, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)

How can I successfully convert this "response" into a String?

Answer 1

body

grab the data and make it utf string if you want. The response's description is not the response body

let responseData = String(data: data, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)

header field

if you want a HEADER FIELD instead:

let httpResponse = response as NSHTTPURLResponse
let field = httpResponse.allHeaderFields["NAME_OF_FIELD"]

Answer 2

Updated Answer:

As is turns out you want to get a header field's content.

if let httpResponse = response as? NSHTTPURLResponse {
    if let sessionID = httpResponse.allHeaderFields["JSESSIONID"] as? String {
        // use sessionID
    }
}

---

When you print an object its description method gets called.

This is why when you println() it you get a textual representation.

There are two ways to accomplish what you want.

1. The easy way

   let responseText = response.description
   

However, this is only good for debugging.

2. The localized way

   let localizedResponse = NSHTTPURLResponse.localizedStringForStatusCode(response.statusCode)
   

Use the second approach whenever you need to display the error to the user.

Answer 3

For a newer version in swift

   let task = session.dataTask(with: url) {(data, response, error) in

        let httpResponse = response as! HTTPURLResponse

        let type = httpResponse.allHeaderFields["Content-Type"]
        print("Content-Type", type)

        let l = httpResponse.allHeaderFields["Content-Length"]
        print("Content-Length", l)

        if let response = response {   // Complete response
            print(response)
        }


            }catch {
                print(error)
            }
        }
        }.resume()

}

Answer 4

You'll need the code below, because the response data from your data task is stored in data. response is the http response, with status codes etc, for more info about http response go here

var responseString: String = String(data: data, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)

Answer 5

If you want to see the answer json as a string, in Swift 5

let httpResponse = response as? HTTPURLResponse

if let jsonResponse = String(data: data!, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8) {
    print("JSON String: \(jsonResponse)")
}

Answer 6

It was as simple as var responseText: String = response.description.