Question

What’s the best way to iterate over all the chars in an NSString? Would you want to loop over the length of the string and use the method.

[aNSString characterAtIndex:index];

or would you want to user a char buffer based on the NSString?

Answer 1

I would definitely get a char buffer first, then iterate over that.

NSString *someString = ...

unsigned int len = [someString length];
char buffer[len];

//This way:
strncpy(buffer, [someString UTF8String]);

//Or this way (preferred):

[someString getCharacters:buffer range:NSMakeRange(0, len)];

for(int i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
   char current = buffer[i];
   //do something with current...
}