determine if a string is a number with NSScanner

Question

i'm trying to find out if my string contains any floatValue, and resign the first responder if it's the case, if it's not, the textfield keyboard should stay on screen.

This code always hides the keyboard, even if it's not a floatValue : do you know how to make it work?

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField {

    NSScanner *scan = [NSScanner scannerWithString:[textField text]];
    if ([scan scanFloat:NULL]){

        [password resignFirstResponder];
        [passwordLength resignFirstResponder];
        return YES;

    } else {
        return NO;
    }
}

Also, i haven't tried with loops but this is a beginning, if you have any idea :

BOOL doesStringContain(NSString* string, NSString* string2){
    for (int i=0; i<[string length]; i++) {
        NSString* chr = [string substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(i, 1)];
        for (int j=0; j<[string2 length]; j++){
            if([chr isEqualToString:j])
                return TRUE;
        }
    }
    return FALSE;
}

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

NSScanner will expect that your float be at the beginning of your string. So to combat that we use setCharactersToBeStripped.

setCharactersToBeStripped will filter out all non-numeric non-period characters from the string so that all you're left with to scan is the number that you're looking for.

NSScanner will match int values (without the .) as well as it will equate an int 123 to 123.00000.

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField {    
    NSScanner *scan = [NSScanner scannerWithString:[textField text]];
    [scan setCharactersToBeSkipped:[[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"1234567890."] invertedSet]];
    float f;
    if ([scan scanFloat:&f]){
        NSLog(@"Scanned a float %f",f);
        [textField resignFirstResponder];
        return YES;

    } else {
        NSLog(@"Did not scan a float");
        return NO;
    }
}

If you want to check if there are non-numeric characters vs only numerics then try :

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField {    

    NSCharacterSet *withFloats = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"0123456789."];

    NSCharacterSet *withoutFloats = [NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet];

    // Change withFloats <-> withoutFloats depending on your need
    NSString *newString = [[textField.text componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:withFloats] componentsJoinedByString:@""];

    NSLog(@"newString %@", newString);

    if ([newString isEqualToString:@""]){
        NSLog(@"Scanned a numeric");
        [textField resignFirstResponder];
        return YES;

    } else {
        NSLog(@"Did not scan a numeric");
        return NO;
    }
}