Extract emoji (unicode) from NSString

Question

I have to parse some strings and extract emojis.

I can't found any good solution to do it.

Let say that i have this string:

" xxx sss "

How can I get these 2 emojis?

Note that: " == + (Emoji Modifier Fitzpatrick Type-6)"

With regard to the Emoji modifiers, compare http://stackoverflow.com/questions/39104152/how-to-know-if-two-emojis-will-be-displayed-as-one-emoji. — Martin R, Aug 24 '16 at 11:27
Is this what you are looking for http://stackoverflow.com/questions/35106059/how-to-extract-emojis-from-a-string ? — Martin R, Aug 24 '16 at 11:30
finally i found this that work VERY well : https://github.com/GabrielMassana/SearchEmojiOnString-iOS — Red Mak, Aug 24 '16 at 14:10

OOPer · Answer 1 · 2016-08-25T12:12:28.177

This code works only in the latest iOS 10 SDK, and cannot detect some combined emojis, but if that's OK with you, please try:

func emojis(_ str: String) -> [String]  {
    //You may need to add some extra characters as "Umbrella on ground" does not have property "Emoji_Presentation".
    let emojiPattern1 = "[\\p{Emoji_Presentation}\\u26F1]" //Code Points with default emoji representation
    let emojiPattern2 = "\\p{Emoji}\\uFE0F" //Characters with emoji variation selector
    let emojiPattern3 = "\\p{Emoji_Modifier_Base}\\p{Emoji_Modifier}" //Characters with emoji modifier
    let emojiPattern4 = "[\\U0001F1E6-\\U0001F1FF][\\U0001F1E6-\\U0001F1FF]" //2-letter flags
    let pattern = "\(emojiPattern4)|\(emojiPattern3)|\(emojiPattern2)|\(emojiPattern1)"
    let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: [])
    let matches = regex.matches(in: str, options: [], range: NSRange(0..<str.utf16.count))
    return matches.map{(str as NSString).substring(with: $0.range)}
}

print(emojis(" xxx  sss  ")) //->["", ""]

(UPDATE)Removed some errors in above code. And a little try to detect some combined emojis.

func emojisIncludingCombined(_ str: String) -> [String]  {
    //You may need to add some extra characters as "Umbrella on ground" does not have property "Emoji_Presentation".
    let emojiPattern1 = "[\\p{Emoji_Presentation}\\u26F1]" //Code Points with default emoji representation
    let emojiPattern2 = "\\p{Emoji}\\uFE0F" //Characters with emoji variation selector
    let emojiPattern3 = "\\p{Emoji_Modifier_Base}\\p{Emoji_Modifier}" //Characters with emoji modifier
    let emojiPattern4 = "[\\U0001F1E6-\\U0001F1FF][\\U0001F1E6-\\U0001F1FF]" //2-letter flags
    let pattern = "\(emojiPattern4)|\(emojiPattern3)|\(emojiPattern2)|\(emojiPattern1)"
    let combinedPattern = "(?:\(pattern))(?:\\u200D(?:\(pattern)))*"
    let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: combinedPattern, options: [])
    let matches = regex.matches(in: str, options: [], range: NSRange(0..<str.utf16.count))
    return matches.map{(str as NSString).substring(with: $0.range)}
}
print(emojisIncludingCombined("ab‍❤️‍‍c")) //->["", "‍❤️‍‍", ""]

UPDATE2

An example which works in Swift 2/iOS 9 SDK.

func emojis(str: String) -> [String]  {
    //You may need to add "refine" (or "tune") emojiPattern1...emojiPattern4.
    let emojiPattern1 = "[\\u2600-\\u27BF\\U0001F300-\\U0001F77F\\U0001F900-\\U0001F9FF]" //Code Points with default emoji representation
    let emojiPattern2 = "[\\u2600-\\u27BF\\U0001F300-\\U0001F77F\\U0001F900–\\U0001F9FF]\\uFE0F" //Characters with emoji variation selector
    let emojiPattern3 = "[\\u2600-\\u27BF\\U0001F300-\\U0001F77F\\U0001F900–\\U0001F9FF][\\U0001F3FB-\\U0001F3FF]" //Characters with emoji modifier
    let emojiPattern4 = "[\\U0001F1E6-\\U0001F1FF][\\U0001F1E6-\\U0001F1FF]" //2-letter flags
    let pattern = "\(emojiPattern4)|\(emojiPattern3)|\(emojiPattern2)|\(emojiPattern1)"
    let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: [])
    let matches = regex.matchesInString(str, options: [], range: NSRange(0..<str.utf16.count))
    return matches.map{(str as NSString).substringWithRange($0.range)}
}

let str1 = "Hello, my name is Jason   how are you ?"
let str4 = "I am going to the ⛱beach with some monkeys "
let str5 = "Japan boy ♏️Scorpis" //="\u{1F1EF}\u{1F1F5}Japan \u{1F466}\u{1F3FB}boy \u{264f}\u{FE0F}Scorpis"
let str6 = " xxx  sss  "
let str7 = "ab‍❤️‍‍"

print(emojis(str1)) //->["", ""]
print(emojis(str4)) //->["⛱", "", ""]
print(emojis(str5)) //->["", "", "♏️"]
print(emojis(str6)) //->["", ""]
print(emojis(str7)) //->["", "", "❤️", "", ""]

func emojisIncludingCombined(str: String) -> [String]  {
    //You may need to add "refine" (or "tune") emojiPattern1...emojiPattern4.
    let emojiPattern1 = "[\\u2600-\\u27BF\\U0001F300-\\U0001F77F\\U0001F900-\\U0001F9FF]" //Code Points with default emoji representation
    let emojiPattern2 = "[\\u2600-\\u27BF\\U0001F300-\\U0001F77F\\U0001F900–\\U0001F9FF]\\uFE0F" //Characters with emoji variation selector
    let emojiPattern3 = "[\\u2600-\\u27BF\\U0001F300-\\U0001F77F\\U0001F900–\\U0001F9FF][\\U0001F3FB-\\U0001F3FF]" //Characters with emoji modifier
    let emojiPattern4 = "[\\U0001F1E6-\\U0001F1FF][\\U0001F1E6-\\U0001F1FF]" //2-letter flags
    let pattern = "\(emojiPattern4)|\(emojiPattern3)|\(emojiPattern2)|\(emojiPattern1)"
    let combinedPattern = "(?:\(pattern))(?:\\u200D(?:\(pattern)))*"
    let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: combinedPattern, options: [])
    let matches = regex.matchesInString(str, options: [], range: NSRange(0..<str.utf16.count))
    return matches.map{(str as NSString).substringWithRange($0.range)}
}

print(emojisIncludingCombined(str7)) //->["", "‍❤️‍‍"]

As commented in the code, emojiPattern1...emojiPattern4 are not representing a complete set of emojis available in iOS. (Including the codes for Swift 3.) You may need to modify the patterns.

Extract emoji (unicode) from NSString

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