How to remove zero width spaces from string in Swift?

Question

I need to filter invisible character from a string. In the attached screen shot, string "​Cilantro" has some hidden character and when i get count of this before and after removing hidden character it shows different character count.

I just want to filter invisible characters not special characters, for example I dont want to filter á, ã è etc characters.

Note: I removed hidden characters using "delete" button.

For the reference I am adding here the String with invisible character: "​Cilantro". I am not sure if it will show at your end too.

Answer 1

Swift 5 or later

You can use new Character isLetter property

let del = Character(UnicodeScalar(127)!)
let string = "Cilantro\(del)\(del)"
print(string.count) // "10\n"
let filtered = string.filter { $0.isLetter }
print(filtered.count)  // "8\n"

---

let string = "cafe\u{301}"
let filtered = string.filter { $0.isLetter }
print(filtered)  // "café"

---

If you just want to remove zero width spaces from your string you can do as follow:

---

extension Character {
    static let zeroWidthSpace = Self(.init(0x200B)!)
    var isZeroWidthSpace: Bool { self == .zeroWidthSpace }
}

---

extension Bool {
    var negated: Bool { !self }
}

---

let str = "​Cilantro"
print(str.count) // 9

let filtered = str.filter(\.isZeroWidthSpace.negated)
print(filtered.count) // 8