How can I use String slicing subscripts in Swift 4

Question

I have the following simple code written in Swift 3:

let str = "Hello, playground"
let index = str.index(of: ",")!
let newStr = str.substring(to: index)

From Xcode 9 beta 5, I get the following warning:

'substring(to:)' is deprecated: Please use String slicing subscript with a 'partial range from' operator.

How can this slicing subscript with partial range from be used in Swift 4?

Answer 1

You should leave one side empty, hence the name "partial range".

let newStr = str[..<index]

The same stands for partial range from operators, just leave the other side empty:

let newStr = str[index...]

Keep in mind that these range operators return a Substring. If you want to convert it to a string, use String's initialization function:

let newStr = String(str[..<index])

You can read more about the new substrings here.

Answer 2

Example of uppercasedFirstCharacter convenience property in Swift3 and Swift4.

Property uppercasedFirstCharacterNew demonstrates how to use String slicing subscript in Swift4.

extension String {

   public var uppercasedFirstCharacterOld: String {
      if characters.count > 0 {
         let splitIndex = index(after: startIndex)
         let firstCharacter = substring(to: splitIndex).uppercased()
         let sentence = substring(from: splitIndex)
         return firstCharacter + sentence
      } else {
         return self
      }
   }

   public var uppercasedFirstCharacterNew: String {
      if characters.count > 0 {
         let splitIndex = index(after: startIndex)
         let firstCharacter = self[..<splitIndex].uppercased()
         let sentence = self[splitIndex...]
         return firstCharacter + sentence
      } else {
         return self
      }
   }
}

let lorem = "lorem".uppercasedFirstCharacterOld
print(lorem) // Prints "Lorem"

let ipsum = "ipsum".uppercasedFirstCharacterNew
print(ipsum) // Prints "Ipsum"

Answer 3

Swift4:

extension String {
    func subString(from: Int, to: Int) -> String {
       let startIndex = self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: from)
       let endIndex = self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: to)
       return String(self[startIndex...endIndex])
    }
}

Usage:

var str = "Hello, playground"
print(str.subString(from:1,to:8))

Answer 4

You can create your custom subString method using extension to class String as below:

extension String {
    func subString(startIndex: Int, endIndex: Int) -> String {
        let end = (endIndex - self.count) + 1
        let indexStartOfText = self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: startIndex)
        let indexEndOfText = self.index(self.endIndex, offsetBy: end)
        let substring = self[indexStartOfText..<indexEndOfText]
        return String(substring)
    }
}

Answer 5

Shorter in Swift 4:

var string = "123456"
string = String(string.prefix(3)) //"123"
string = String(string.suffix(3)) //"456"

Answer 6

I have written a string extension for replacement of 'String: subString:'

extension String {

    func sliceByCharacter(from: Character, to: Character) -> String? {
        let fromIndex = self.index(self.index(of: from)!, offsetBy: 1)
        let toIndex = self.index(self.index(of: to)!, offsetBy: -1)
        return String(self[fromIndex...toIndex])
    }

    func sliceByString(from:String, to:String) -> String? {
        //From - startIndex
        var range = self.range(of: from)
        let subString = String(self[range!.upperBound...])

        //To - endIndex
        range = subString.range(of: to)
        return String(subString[..<range!.lowerBound])
    }

}

Usage : "Date(1511508780012+0530)".sliceByString(from: "(", to: "+")

Example Result : "1511508780012"

PS: Optionals are forced to unwrap. Please add Type safety check wherever necessary.