Check if string contains special characters in Swift
Solution 1
Your code check if no character in the string is from the given set. What you want is to check if any character is not in the given set:
if (searchTerm!.rangeOfCharacterFromSet(characterSet.invertedSet).location != NSNotFound){
println("Could not handle special characters")
}
You can also achieve this using regular expressions:
let regex = NSRegularExpression(pattern: ".*[^A-Za-z0-9].*", options: nil, error: nil)!
if regex.firstMatchInString(searchTerm!, options: nil, range: NSMakeRange(0, searchTerm!.length)) != nil {
println("could not handle special characters")
}
The pattern [^A-Za-z0-9]
matches a character which is not from the ranges A-Z,
a-z, or 0-9.
Update for Swift 2:
let searchTerm = "a+b"
let characterset = NSCharacterSet(charactersInString: "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789")
if searchTerm.rangeOfCharacterFromSet(characterset.invertedSet) != nil {
print("string contains special characters")
}
Update for Swift 3:
let characterset = CharacterSet(charactersIn: "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789")
if searchTerm.rangeOfCharacter(from: characterset.inverted) != nil {
print("string contains special characters")
}
Solution 2
This answer may help the people who are using Swift 4.1
func hasSpecialCharacters() -> Bool {
do {
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: ".*[^A-Za-z0-9].*", options: .caseInsensitive)
if let _ = regex.firstMatch(in: self, options: NSRegularExpression.MatchingOptions.reportCompletion, range: NSMakeRange(0, self.count)) {
return true
}
} catch {
debugPrint(error.localizedDescription)
return false
}
return false
}
Taken reference from @Martin R's answer.
Solution 3
With Swift 5 you can just do
if let hasSpecialCharacters = "your string".range(of: ".*[^A-Za-z0-9].*", options: .regularExpression) != nil {}
Solution 4
Inverting your character set will work, because in your character set you have all the valid characters:
var characterSet:NSCharacterSet = NSCharacterSet(charactersInString: "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789")
if (searchTerm!.rangeOfCharacterFromSet(characterSet.invertedSet).location == NSNotFound){
println("No special characters")
}
Hope this helps.. :)
Solution 5
Password validation With following:- (Password at least eight characters long, one special character, one uppercase, one lower case letter and one digit)
var isValidateSecialPassword : Bool {
if(self.count>=8 && self.count<=20){
}else{
return false
}
let nonUpperCase = CharacterSet(charactersIn: "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ").inverted
let letters = self.components(separatedBy: nonUpperCase)
let strUpper: String = letters.joined()
let smallLetterRegEx = ".*[a-z]+.*"
let samlltest = NSPredicate(format:"SELF MATCHES %@", smallLetterRegEx)
let smallresult = samlltest.evaluate(with: self)
let numberRegEx = ".*[0-9]+.*"
let numbertest = NSPredicate(format:"SELF MATCHES %@", numberRegEx)
let numberresult = numbertest.evaluate(with: self)
let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: ".*[^A-Za-z0-9].*", options: NSRegularExpression.Options())
var isSpecial :Bool = false
if regex.firstMatch(in: self, options: NSRegularExpression.MatchingOptions(), range:NSMakeRange(0, self.count)) != nil {
print("could not handle special characters")
isSpecial = true
}else{
isSpecial = false
}
return (strUpper.count >= 1) && smallresult && numberresult && isSpecial
}
iPhone Guy
Updated on July 09, 2022Comments
-
iPhone Guy almost 2 years
I have to detect whether a string contains any special characters. How can I check it? Does Swift support regular expressions?
var characterSet:NSCharacterSet = NSCharacterSet(charactersInString: "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789") if (searchTerm!.rangeOfCharacterFromSet(characterSet).location == NSNotFound){ println("Could not handle special characters") }
I tried the code above, but it matches only if I enter the first character as a special character.