Swift – How to remove special character without remove emoji from string?

Question

How can all special characters be removed from a string without also removing emojis?

I've tried:

func removeSpecialCharsFromString(text: String) -> String {
    let okayChars : Set<Character> = 
        Set("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890-& ".characters)
    return String(text.characters.filter {okayChars.contains($0) })
}

– but this function also removes the emoji from the string.

Expected Result:

"Hello guys !? Need some money $ "

Actual Result:

"Hello guys Need some money "

This could be helpful - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30757193/find-out-if-character-in-string-is-emoji — mag_zbc, Jul 11 '19 at 08:25
@mag_zbc Thanks, but I don't see how that link can help me.I already use the extension to see if my string contains emoji or not. — kirusamma, Jul 11 '19 at 08:46
What do you mean by a "special character"? Do you mean "any non ASCII except emojis" or "English punctuation" or something else? Would the letter ü be considered a special character? — JeremyP, Jul 11 '19 at 09:13

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 11 '19 at 09:15

You can use below extension to make your sentence perfect as per desired output.

extension String {
    var condensedWhitespace: String {
        let components = self.components(separatedBy: NSCharacterSet.whitespacesAndNewlines)
        return components.filter { !$0.isEmpty }.joined(separator: " ")
    }

    func removeSpecialCharacters() -> String {
        let okayChars = CharacterSet(charactersIn: "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890 ")
        return String(self.unicodeScalars.filter { okayChars.contains($0) || $0.properties.isEmoji })
    }
}

Example.

let input = "Hello guys !? Need some money $ "

print(input.removeSpecialCharacters().condensedWhitespace)
// Hello guys Need some money

Awesome guys, it works like a charm ! Thanks you so much ! – kirusamma Jul 11 '19 at 09:41 — kirusamma, Jul 11 '19 at 09:41

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 11 '19 at 09:10

The question here is how to understand if a character is an emoji or not. Swift has a handy isEmoji method that we can use.

Here is the updated function with the usage of isEmoji method:

func removeSpecialCharacters(from text: String) -> String {
    let okayChars = CharacterSet(charactersIn: "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890-& ")
    return String(text.unicodeScalars.filter { okayChars.contains($0) || $0.properties.isEmoji })
}

And just in case someone is going to test the code above in Playground:

let input = "Hello guys !? Need some money $ "
let output = removeSpecialCharacters(from: input)
print(output)                    // Prints: Hello guys  Need some money

Swift – How to remove special character without remove emoji from string?

2 Answers2