Split a String into an array in Swift?

Question

Say I have a string here:

var fullName: String = "First Last"

I want to split the string base on white space and assign the values to their respective variables

var fullNameArr = // something like: fullName.explode(" ") 

var firstName: String = fullNameArr[0]
var lastName: String? = fullnameArr[1]

Also, sometimes users might not have a last name.

Solution 1

The Swift way is to use the global split function, like so:

var fullName = "First Last"
var fullNameArr = split(fullName) {$0 == " "}
var firstName: String = fullNameArr[0]
var lastName: String? = fullNameArr.count > 1 ? fullNameArr[1] : nil

with Swift 2

In Swift 2 the use of split becomes a bit more complicated due to the introduction of the internal CharacterView type. This means that String no longer adopts the SequenceType or CollectionType protocols and you must instead use the .characters property to access a CharacterView type representation of a String instance. (Note: CharacterView does adopt SequenceType and CollectionType protocols).

let fullName = "First Last"
let fullNameArr = fullName.characters.split{$0 == " "}.map(String.init)
// or simply:
// let fullNameArr = fullName.characters.split{" "}.map(String.init)

fullNameArr[0] // First
fullNameArr[1] // Last 

Solution 2

Just call componentsSeparatedByString method on your fullName

import Foundation

var fullName: String = "First Last"
let fullNameArr = fullName.componentsSeparatedByString(" ")

var firstName: String = fullNameArr[0]
var lastName: String = fullNameArr[1]

Update for Swift 3+

import Foundation

let fullName    = "First Last"
let fullNameArr = fullName.components(separatedBy: " ")

let name    = fullNameArr[0]
let surname = fullNameArr[1]

Solution 3

The easiest method to do this is by using componentsSeparatedBy:

For Swift 2:

import Foundation
let fullName : String = "First Last";
let fullNameArr : [String] = fullName.componentsSeparatedByString(" ")

// And then to access the individual words:

var firstName : String = fullNameArr[0]
var lastName : String = fullNameArr[1]

For Swift 3:

import Foundation

let fullName : String = "First Last"
let fullNameArr : [String] = fullName.components(separatedBy: " ")

// And then to access the individual words:

var firstName : String = fullNameArr[0]
var lastName : String = fullNameArr[1]

Solution 4

Swift Dev. 4.0 (May 24, 2017)

A new function split in Swift 4 (Beta).

import Foundation
let sayHello = "Hello Swift 4 2017";
let result = sayHello.split(separator: " ")
print(result)

Output:

["Hello", "Swift", "4", "2017"]

Accessing values:

print(result[0]) // Hello
print(result[1]) // Swift
print(result[2]) // 4
print(result[3]) // 2017

Xcode 8.1 / Swift 3.0.1

Here is the way multiple delimiters with array.

import Foundation
let mathString: String = "12-37*2/5"
let numbers = mathString.components(separatedBy: ["-", "*", "/"])
print(numbers)

Output:

["12", "37", "2", "5"]

Solution 5

Swift 4 or later

If you just need to properly format a person name, you can use PersonNameComponentsFormatter.

The PersonNameComponentsFormatter class provides localized representations of the components of a person’s name, as represented by a PersonNameComponents object. Use this class to create localized names when displaying person name information to the user.

---

// iOS (9.0 and later), macOS (10.11 and later), tvOS (9.0 and later), watchOS (2.0 and later)
let nameFormatter = PersonNameComponentsFormatter()

let name =  "Mr. Steven Paul Jobs Jr."
// personNameComponents requires iOS (10.0 and later)
if let nameComps  = nameFormatter.personNameComponents(from: name) {
    nameComps.namePrefix   // Mr.
    nameComps.givenName    // Steven
    nameComps.middleName   // Paul
    nameComps.familyName   // Jobs
    nameComps.nameSuffix   // Jr.

    // It can also be configured to format your names
    // Default (same as medium), short, long or abbreviated

    nameFormatter.style = .default
    nameFormatter.string(from: nameComps)   // "Steven Jobs"

    nameFormatter.style = .short
    nameFormatter.string(from: nameComps)   // "Steven"

    nameFormatter.style = .long
    nameFormatter.string(from: nameComps)   // "Mr. Steven Paul Jobs jr."

    nameFormatter.style = .abbreviated
    nameFormatter.string(from: nameComps)   // SJ

    // It can also be use to return an attributed string using annotatedString method
    nameFormatter.style = .long
    nameFormatter.annotatedString(from: nameComps)   // "Mr. Steven Paul Jobs jr."
}

edit/update:

Swift 5 or later

For just splitting a string by non letter characters we can use the new Character property isLetter:

let fullName = "First Last"

let components = fullName.split{ !$0.isLetter }
print(components)  // "["First", "Last"]\n"

View more solutions

Comments

[Casey Perkins]

In my tests, componentsSeparatedByString is usually significantly faster, especially when dealing with strings that require splitting into many pieces. But for the example listed by the OP, either should suffice.

[Pascal]

As of Xcode 6.2b3 split can be used as split("a:b::c:", {$0 == ":"}, maxSplit: Int.max, allowEmptySlices: false).

[NRitH]

Just remember that you still need to use the old componentsSeparatedByString() method if your separator is anything longer than a single character. And as cool as it would be to say let (firstName, lastName) = split(fullName) {$0 == ' '}, that doesn't work, sadly.

[NRitH]

Is this documented anywhere, Maury? What if I need to split on something other than a single character?

[Pieter Meiresone]

@chrisco Could you say why this solution is preferred over the componentsSeparatedByString approach ? Regards

[rmp251]

@NRitH consider .componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet(.whitespaceAndNewlineC‌​haracterSet())

[Kashif]

@Ethan: If I want to use either "," or ";" as split characters, how can I modify your code?

[Ethan]

@Kashif then you could use split("a,b;c,d") {$0 == "," || $0 == ";"} or split("a,b;c,d") {contains(",;", $0)}

[Can]

Be noted that this is actually an underlying NSString (Swift automatically swaps them when importing Foundation).

[Chris]

Most useful answer in my view, since you might want to allow separation of strings with , or ; or any other separator

[elcuco]

Which is no longer the case in Swift 1.2, in which Apple no longer converts Swift's String into NSString automagically.

[rmp251]

@Crashalot there are two functions: componentsSeparatedByString and componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet

[Frizlab]

@Crashalot This answer does not work starting from Swift 1.2.

[Andrew]

This answer works in Xcode 7 beta 4 and Swift 2.0. Xcode now auto-completes Foundation methods on Swift String objects without type casting to an NSString, which is not the case in Xcode 6.4 with Swift 1.2.

[rickster]

I'd say this is close to "not an answer" status, in that it's mostly commentary on existing answers. But it is pointing out something important.

[Lars Blumberg]

This answer doesn't wirk anymore as of Xcode7 beta5, see answers below

[skagedal]

Correct code for Xcode 7.0 is let fullNameArr = fullName.characters.split{$0 == " "}.map(String.init). Tried to edit, but it got rejected.

[KTPatel]

for Swift 2: Xcode 7, fullNameArr[0] and fullNameArr[1] returns characterview

[John Tracid]

Answer need to be updated with comment from @skagedal because otherwise you have CharacterView instead of string but question was about string.

[Velizar Hristov]

It didn't work in the REPL until I imported Foundation.

[sudo]

Geez, can't they make a .split() function like in Python already?

[sudo]

The method for Xcode 7.0 no longer works in Xcode 7.1.

[Kashif]

@Ethan: How can I split on "; " It only seems to allow one character for split?

[Cody Weaver]

Using XCode 7.2 I got an error and I think @LeoDabus answer is more Swift.

[He Yifei 何一非]

Anyone know how to split with more than 1 character? e.g. ". "

[Jon Cox]

This works exactly as expected (i.e. fullNameArr is an [String]) in Xcode 7.2.

[Suragch]

How about editing out the old stuff and just showing the current answer. People who need a history lesson can check the edit history.

[Eric Aya]

Same answer as stackoverflow.com/a/25678505/2227743 on this page. Please read the other answers before posting yours. Thank you.

[Bob Spryn]

Array subscript doesn't return optionals. var lastName: String? = fullNameArr[1] will not work.

[Maxime Chéramy]

It apparently requires Foundation to work, which is no longer available in Swift 2.2.1 on Linux.

[Nicolas Miari]

Agreed. The first thing that occurred to me after seeing the answers that split by " " is: What happens if the input text contains several consecutive spaces? What if it has tabs? Full-width (CJK) space? etc.

[mfaani]

Can you add explanation to your Syntax usage? What is $0 == " "?

[Chad]

Using Swift 3 and XCode 8.2, I did not need to import Foundation.

[Adrian]

Make sure to add import Foundation to the class you're using this in. #SavedYouFiveMinutes

[xxmbabanexx]

Is there a way to split using regex? I tried to do string.components(separatedBy: regex, options: .regularExpression) but I got an error.

[joanolo]

Some explanation about why this produces the desired results would be helpful.

[Kundan]

Please give some explanation, it's always better to do so.

[help-info.de]

From review queue: May I request you to please add some more context around your answer. Code-only answers are difficult to understand. It will help the asker and future readers both if you can add more information in your post. See also Explaining entirely code-based answers.

[OderWat]

Attention (Swift 4): If you have a string like let a="a,,b,c" and you use a.split(separator: ",") you get an array like ["a", "b", c"] by default. This can be changed using omittingEmptySubsequences: false which is true by default.

[pkamb]

Any multi-character splits in Swift 4+?

[Dani]

How to limit amount of parts string splits to?

[Eric Aya]

Hi. In Swift, parameters name should always start with lowercase. Like: separateByString(string wholeString: String, byChar char:String). Also this way avoids conflating the variable name with a type.

[Lirik]

Note that this do not return an array of String, but array of Substring which is awkward to use.

[Leo Dabus]

@DarrellRoot you just need to map the substrings fullName.split { $0.isWhitespace }.map(String.init)

[Darrell Root]

I love that new API but keep in mind it returns Substrings. I needed Strings (and wanted to split on whitespace in general) so I did this: let words = line.split{ $0.isWhitespace }.map{ String($0)} Thanks @LeoDabus for your version (my original comment had code missing). Also I suggest moving the Swift 5 version to the top of the answer.

[Louis Lac]

Using Swift 5 in Xcode 10.3 String.components(SeparatedByString:) is still way faster than String.split(separator:). Around 4 times faster for me. Just be careful with component if there is a white space of new line at the end of your string, it returns an empty string at the end of the output string array.

[Sai kumar Reddy]

here fullName is a string separated by a "." using fullName.components(separatedBy: ".") default apple provided function and it returns an array of string

[Dave]

@DanielSpringer That is the flaw in this approach. This is frequently cited in examples extracting class names but it doesn't account for nested types. For that scenario I prefer str.split(separator: ".", maxSplits: 1).last.map(String.init)!

[NikaE]

@MdRais let name = "JOHN" print(Array(name))

[Wyetro]

@MdRais you should ask a new question, this one is 6 years old

[Bobby]

Try converting the word to a char data type.

[Antonio]

@MdRais you can use for:in to access the individual characters in a string - note that each element is a Character

[Nikolay Suvandzhiev]

Note that this has different behaviour in some edge cases. For example: "/users/4" with split will result in two elements, whereas with components, there will be three, the first one being the empty string.