I want to remove static text from string - iOS

Question

Hi I have a News Reader and I keep getting a string like this -

two New York police officers shot dead in 'ambush'

I want the string two New York police officers shot dead in ambush

How can I scan from & to ; and then delete occurrences of the scan.

I created a scanner like so -

NSString *webString222222 = filteredTitle2;
        NSScanner *stringScanner222222 = [NSScanner scannerWithString:webString222222];
        NSString *content222222 = [[NSString alloc] init];
        [stringScanner222222 scanUpToString:@"&" intoString:Nil];
        [stringScanner222222 scanUpToString:@";" intoString:&content222222];
        NSString *filteredTitle222 = [content222222 stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:content222222 withString:@""];
        NSString *filteredTitle22 = [filteredTitle222 stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"&" withString:@""];

But when I do this code the whole text disappears! Every single word. When I check the title in my NSLog that is the only & sign in there and the only ; sign in there! Im not sure where I went wrong here.

Answer 1

You can use NSRegularExpression to build proper matching pattern:

NSString *pattern = @"\\&#[0-9]+;";
NSString *str = @"two New York police officers shot dead in 'ambush'";

NSLog(@"Original test: %@",str);
NSError *error = nil;
NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression
                              regularExpressionWithPattern:pattern
                              options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive error:&error];
if (error != nil)
{
    NSLog(@"ERror: %@",error);
} 
else 
{
    NSString *replaced = [regex stringByReplacingMatchesInString:str
                                                         options:0
                                                           range:NSMakeRange(0, [str length])
                                                    withTemplate:@""];

    NSLog(@"Replaced test: %@",replaced);
}

See https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Foundation/Reference/NSRegularExpression_Class/index.html