How do you use NSAttributedString?

Question

Multiple colours in an NSString or NSMutableStrings are not possible. So I\'ve heard a little about the NSAttributedString which was introduced wit

Answer 1

Since iOS 7 you can use NSAttributedString with HTML syntax:

NSURL *htmlString = [[NSBundle mainBundle]  URLForResource: @"string"     withExtension:@"html"];
NSAttributedString *stringWithHTMLAttributes = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithFileURL:htmlString
                                                                                       options:@{NSDocumentTypeDocumentAttribute:NSHTMLTextDocumentType}
                                                                            documentAttributes:nil
                                                                                         error:nil];
textView.attributedText = stringWithHTMLAttributes;// you can use a label also

You have to add the file "string.html" to you project, and the content of the html can be like this:

  
    
  
  
    firstsecondthird
  
  

Now, you can use NSAttributedString as you want, even without HTML file, like for example:

//At the top of your .m file
#define RED_OCCURENCE -red_occurence-
#define GREEN_OCCURENCE -green_occurence-
#define BLUE_OCCURENCE -blue_occurence-
#define HTML_TEMPLATE @"-red_occurence--green_occurence--blue_occurence-"

//Where you need to use your attributed string
NSString *string = [HTML_TEMPLATE stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:RED_OCCURENCE withString:@"first"] ;
string = [string stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:GREEN_OCCURENCE   withString:@"second"];
string = [string stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:BLUE_OCCURENCE    withString:@"third"];

NSData* cData = [string dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

NSAttributedString *stringWithHTMLAttributes = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithData:cData
                                                                                options:@{NSDocumentTypeDocumentAttribute:NSHTMLTextDocumentType}
                                                                        documentAttributes:nil
                                                                                     error:nil];
textView.attributedText = stringWithHTMLAttributes;

Source