Swift extract regex matches

Question

I want to extract substrings from a string that match a regex pattern.

So I\'m looking for something like this:

func matchesForRegexInText(regex: St         


        

Answer 1

My answer builds on top of given answers but makes regex matching more robust by adding additional support:

• Returns not only matches but returns also all capturing groups for each match (see examples below)
• Instead of returning an empty array, this solution supports optional matches
• Avoids do/catch by not printing to the console and makes use of the guard construct
• Adds matchingStrings as an extension to String

Swift 4.2

//: Playground - noun: a place where people can play

import Foundation

extension String {
    func matchingStrings(regex: String) -> [[String]] {
        guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: []) else { return [] }
        let nsString = self as NSString
        let results  = regex.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length))
        return results.map { result in
            (0..

Swift 3

//: Playground - noun: a place where people can play

import Foundation

extension String {
    func matchingStrings(regex: String) -> [[String]] {
        guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: []) else { return [] }
        let nsString = self as NSString
        let results  = regex.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length))
        return results.map { result in
            (0..

Swift 2

extension String {
    func matchingStrings(regex: String) -> [[String]] {
        guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: regex, options: []) else { return [] }
        let nsString = self as NSString
        let results  = regex.matchesInString(self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, nsString.length))
        return results.map { result in
            (0..