How to get the first character of each word in a string?

Question

I want this:

var String1 = "Stack Over Flow"
var desiredOutPut = "SOF" // the first Character of each word in a single String (after space)

I know how to get the first character from a string but have no idea what to do this with this problem.

See http://stackoverflow.com/a/25229901/1226963 to split the string into an array of words. — rmaddy, Dec 31 '15 at 02:54

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited May 04 '21 at 14:41

12

You can try this code:

let stringInput = "First Last"
let stringInputArr = stringInput.components(separatedBy:" ")
var stringNeed = ""

for string in stringInputArr {
    stringNeed += String(string.first!)
}

print(stringNeed)

If have problem with componentsSeparatedByString you can try seperate by character space and continue in array you remove all string empty.

Hope this help!

edited May 04 '21 at 14:41

Leo Dabus

229,809
59
489
571

answered Dec 31 '15 at 03:03

vien vu

4,277
2
17
30

1

hey thanks :) @vienvu its working fine , but can you tell me what we are doing here , i mean the codes am not getting how they are performing the task – Dec 31 '15 at 03:14
2

@Montanabucks My idea in this case is: We can separate a string to an array by space character. Your gold is get first character each string so we run a loop through this array. We can get first character of it. Because it is character so we need convert to String. We need string to hold result. So each loop we jont it. When end loop we will get result you need. – vien vu Dec 31 '15 at 03:17
1

Note that this will crash if there is an empty string returned by the `components(separatedBy:)` method. i.e. the original string ends with a whitespace `let stringInput = "First Last "` – Leo Dabus May 04 '21 at 14:46

Andrei A. · Answer 2 · 2017-02-16T16:36:59.433

To keep it more elegant I would make an extension for the swift 3.0 String class with the following code.

extension String
{
    public func getAcronyms(separator: String = "") -> String
    {
        let acronyms = self.components(separatedBy: " ").map({ String($0.characters.first!) }).joined(separator: separator);
        return acronyms;
    }
}

Afterwords you can just use it like this:

  let acronyms = "Hello world".getAcronyms();
  //will print: Hw

  let acronymsWithSeparator = "Hello world".getAcronyms(separator: ".");
  //will print: H.w

  let upperAcronymsWithSeparator = "Hello world".getAcronyms(separator: ".").uppercased();
  //will print: H.W

Notice that code does not work if your string ends with a whitespace -> "Hello world " — Luca Davanzo, Nov 22 '17 at 13:21

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited May 04 '21 at 14:50

4

Or by using .reduce():

let str = "Stack Over Flow"
let desiredOutPut = str
    .components(separatedBy: " ")
    .reduce("") { $0 + ($1.first.map(String.init) ?? "") }

print(desiredOutPut)

edited May 04 '21 at 14:50

Leo Dabus

229,809
59
489
571

answered Dec 31 '15 at 03:08

dfrib

70,367
12
127
192

1

@Montanabucks always happy to help! – dfrib Dec 31 '15 at 03:18
1

**Swift 3 Update:** `var desiredOutPut = String1.components(separatedBy: " ").reduce("") { $0.0 + String($0.1.characters.first!) }` – Mohit Singh Aug 25 '17 at 09:47

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered May 14 '17 at 03:02

SWIFT 3

To avoid the crash when there are multiple spaces between words (i.e. John Smith), you can use something like this:

extension String {
  func acronym() -> String {
    return self.components(separatedBy: .whitespaces).filter { !$0.isEmpty }.reduce("") { $0.0 + String($0.1.characters.first!) }
  }
}

If you want to include newlines as well, just replace .whitespaces with .whitespacesAndNewlines.

Ty Daniels · Answer 5 · 2018-07-24T20:55:23.127

3

Note that if you're experiencing error:

Cannot invoke 'reduce' with an argument list of type '(String, (_) -> _)

labelForContext.text = self.components(separatedBy: " ").reduce("") { first, next in 
     (first) + (next.first.map { String($0) } ?? "")
}

edited Jul 24 '18 at 20:55

answered Jul 24 '18 at 20:49

Ty Daniels

99
6

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 31 '15 at 02:54

0

You can use the componentsSeparatedByString() method to get an array of strings. Use " " as the separator.

Since you know how to get the first char of a string, now you just do that for each string in the array.

answered Dec 31 '15 at 02:54

i_am_jorf

53,608
15
131
222

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 31 '15 at 03:16

0

var String1 = "Stack Over Flow"
let arr = String1.componentsSeparatedByString(" ")
var desiredoutput = ""
for str in arr {
    if let char = str.characters.first {
        desiredoutput += String(char)
    }
}
desiredoutput

By the way, the convention for variable names I believe is camel-case with a lowercase letter for the first character, such as "string1" as opposed to "String1"

answered Dec 31 '15 at 03:16

SwiftMatt

949
1
9
19

thanks for helping , and yeah you're am on my track , :) learning , i'll keep this in my mind – Dec 31 '15 at 03:20
No problem. It is important to check that first is non-nil, because it can potentially be nil if String1 ends with a space, in which case the final item in the array may be an empty string. – SwiftMatt Dec 31 '15 at 04:37
1

Here is the excerpt from the Swift programming book: “Whenever you define a new class or structure, you effectively define a brand new Swift type. Give types UpperCamelCase names (such as SomeClass and SomeStructure here) to match the capitalization of standard Swift types (such as String, Int, and Bool). Conversely, always give properties and methods lowerCamelCase names (such as frameRate and incrementCount) to differentiate them from type names.” Excerpt From: Apple Inc. “The Swift Programming Language (Swift 2.1 Prerelease).” iBooks. – SwiftMatt Dec 31 '15 at 05:58

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 08 '17 at 05:26

Here is the changes in swift3

      let stringInput = "Stack Overflow"
      let stringInputArr = stringInput.components(separatedBy: " ")
      var stringNeed = ""

      for string in stringInputArr {
           stringNeed = stringNeed + String(string.characters.first!)
      }

      print(stringNeed)

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 24 '18 at 21:03

0

For the sake of completeness this is a solution with very powerful enumerateSubstrings(in:options:_:

let string = "Stack Over Flow"

var result = ""
string.enumerateSubstrings(in: string.startIndex..<string.endIndex, options: .byWords) { (substring, _, _, _) in
    if let substring = substring { result += substring.prefix(1) }
}
print(result)

answered Jul 24 '18 at 21:03

vadian

274,689
30
353
361

substring will never be nil using only `.byWords` option. **The enumerated substring. If substringNotRequired is included in opts, this parameter is nil for every execution of the closure.** `result += substring!.prefix(1) ` if you want to be extra paranoid `result += substring?.prefix(1) ?? ""` – Leo Dabus May 04 '21 at 14:55

score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Nov 26 '19 at 09:17

0

let inputString = "ABC PQR XYZ"
var stringNeed = ""

class something
{
        let splits = inputString.components(separatedBy: " ")
        for string in splits
        {
            stringNeed = stringNeed + String(string.first!)      
        }
        print(stringNeed)
}

edited Nov 26 '19 at 09:17

Eugenio

1,013
3
13
33

answered Nov 26 '19 at 08:10

riya

1

split String and print first letter of that split strings – riya Nov 26 '19 at 08:11
this answer is just duplication of any other answer to the OP from 1.5 years ago. – holex Nov 26 '19 at 08:30

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 16 '23 at 05:34

0

Here's the version I used for Swift 5.7 and newer

extension String {
func getAcronym() -> String {
    let array = components(separatedBy: .whitespaces)
    return array.reduce("") { $0 + String($1.first!)}
   }
}

answered Feb 16 '23 at 05:34

cherucole

560
7
15

How to get the first character of each word in a string?

11 Answers11

Linked

Related