How to get a part of a NSString

Question

"http://stackoverflow.com/pqr?name=XYZ&age=26"

for example in the above string i need the value of name that is XYZ. how to get that..?

Thanks

Answer 1

There are methods on NSURL, which you would need to init from the string, that might help. For example, - (NSString *) query which would give you 'name=XYZ&age=26'. You could then use componentsSeparatedByString(@"&") to gather each argument and iterate over the resulting array until you get to the key/value you need. Maybe something like:

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLFromString:incomingString];
NSString *queryString = [url query];
NSArray *queryArray = [queryString componentsSeparatedByString(@"&")];

for (NSString *query in queryArray)
{
  NSArray *arg = [query componentsSeparatedByString(@"=");
  if ([arg count] != 2) continue;

  if ([arg objectAtIndex:0] caseInsensitiveCompare:@"SOME_KEY"] == NSOrderedSame)
  {
    // do something, probably with [arg objectAtIndex:1]
  }

}

However, you should be aware of encoding with the incoming string. For example, percent escapes.

Answer 2

Try to split up the string with NSString's method

 - (NSArray *)componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:(NSCharacterSet *)separator

Use "?", "=" and "&" as seperators and then you should be good to go.