Question

I have a NSString with a bunch of random numbers and then something that looks like “<string I need>“. How would I take everything out of the string except for the contents within the greater and less than signs?

Answer 1

Here is a snippet I use to extract pieces of string. I may have even gotten it from some other Stackoverflow question.

- (NSString *)getDataBetweenFromString:(NSString *)data leftString:(NSString *)leftData rightString:(NSString *)rightData leftOffset:(NSInteger)leftPos; 
{         
NSInteger left, right;         
NSString *foundData; 
NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:data];
[scanner scanUpToString:leftData intoString: NULL];         
left = [scanner scanLocation]; 
NSLog(@"Length of string = %d",data.length);
NSLog(@"Scan Location = %d",left);
NSLog(@"Total String to parse %@",data);
if (left < data.length) {
    [scanner setScanLocation:left + leftPos]; 
    [scanner scanUpToString:rightData intoString: NULL];         
    right = [scanner scanLocation] + 1;         
    left += leftPos;         
    foundData = [data substringWithRange: NSMakeRange(left, (right - left) - 1)];         
} else {
    foundData = @"";
}
return foundData; 
}  

I would call it from something like

[self getDataBetweenFromString:someString leftString:@"<" rightString:@">" leftOffset:1]];  

The leftOffest value is equal to the length of the leftString parameter. The one thing you need to code some error handling for is if the leftOffset string is not in the someString it will throw an error.