When using ABMultiValueCopyValueAtIndex, how to get NSString with all the special charecters removed?

Question

When i am using ABpeoplePickerNavigationController, when the below delegate gets called, I am trying to do the following:

- (BOOL)peoplePickerNavigationController:(ABPeoplePickerNavigationController *)peoplePicker shouldContinueAfterSelectingPerson:(ABRecordRef)person property:(ABPropertyID)property identifier:(ABMultiValueIdentifier)identifier
{
    if(property == kABPersonPhoneProperty || property == kABPersonEmailProperty)
    {
        NSString *name = (__bridge NSString *)ABRecordCopyCompositeName(person);
        ABMutableMultiValueRef multi = (ABMultiValueRef)ABRecordCopyValue(person, property);
        NSString *number = (__bridge NSString*)ABMultiValueCopyValueAtIndex(multi, identifier);
        if(![VZMUtils validateEmail:number])
            number = [VZMUtils formatIdentificationNumber:number];
        number = [number stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"." withString:@""];
        ALog(@"number %@ and name %@",number,name);
        [self.popoverDelegate setDataWithName:name andDetail:number];
    }
    else
    {
        UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Invalid type selected." message:@"Please select either a phone number or email address to add as a recipient" delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"Ok" otherButtonTitles:nil, nil];
        [alert show];
    }
    [self dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:nil];
    return NO;
}

The variable number what i am getting is .925.3248930, in the console it is adding some kind of a "." in positions of a whitespace. I tried trimming whitespaces still i am very unsuccesful in doing so. Guys can you help me out in this? Am i doing something wrong?

Answer 1

You can try

number = [number stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"." withString:@""];

to remove the dots from the resulted string.

or if there is any possibilities of other special characters use below code

NSCharacterSet *onlyAllowedChars = [[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"0123456789"] invertedSet];
number = [[number componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:onlyAllowedChars] componentsJoinedByString:@""];