This removes white space from both ends of a string:
NSString *newString = [oldString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
How do I remove white space from just the right end of a string?
UPDATE: The code from the accepted answer is now part of SSToolkit. Yay!
UPDATE: A quick benchmark showed that Matt's own adaption, based on Max' & mine, performs best.
@implementation NSString (TrimmingAdditions)
- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingLeadingCharactersInSet:(NSCharacterSet *)characterSet {
NSUInteger location = 0;
NSUInteger length = [self length];
unichar charBuffer[length];
[self getCharacters:charBuffer];
for (location; location < length; location++) {
if (![characterSet characterIsMember:charBuffer[location]]) {
break;
}
}
return [self substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(location, length - location)];
}
- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingTrailingCharactersInSet:(NSCharacterSet *)characterSet {
NSUInteger location = 0;
NSUInteger length = [self length];
unichar charBuffer[length];
[self getCharacters:charBuffer];
for (length; length > 0; length--) {
if (![characterSet characterIsMember:charBuffer[length - 1]]) {
break;
}
}
return [self substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(location, length - location)];
}
@end
and then:
NSString *trimmedString = [yourString stringByTrimmingTrailingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterset whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
or for leading whitespace:
NSString *trimmedString = [yourString stringByTrimmingLeadingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterset whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
It's implemented in an abstract fashion so you can use it with any possible NSCharacterSet
, whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet
being just one of them.
For convenience you might want to add these wrapper methods:
- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingLeadingWhitespace {
return [self stringByTrimmingLeadingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]];
}
- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingTrailingWhitespace {
return [self stringByTrimmingTrailingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]];
}
- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingLeadingWhitespaceAndNewline {
return [self stringByTrimmingLeadingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
}
- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingTrailingWhitespaceAndNewline {
return [self stringByTrimmingTrailingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
}
Edit: reverted back to initial version using charBuffer for better performance.