Question

I have two strings and I want to compare them.

edit To clarify I’d like to find the longest number of consecutive words the strings have in common.

For example the string:
“Eminent Domain for Modern : Daily MTG : Magic: The Gathering”
and
“Building On A Budget: Eminent Domain For Modern”

would return 4, since both strings contain “eminent domain for modern” which contains 4 words.

however, if simply finding the number of words in common is faster then that method would be acceptable… I’m not sure the best way to do either…

Answer 1

Read up on the NSString Class Reference and NSArray Class Reference for details, but here’s an approach.

Use the NSString method

– stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:

to remove anything that isn’t a space or letter. Then use the method

– componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:

to convert the string into an NSArray where each element is a word. Do this for each of the two strings you wish to compare. Then loop through the elements of the one array and use the NSArray method

– containsObject:

to see if the second array also contains that word. Try that, and if you get stuck at a specific point, then post the code you have and ask again for help. Good luck.