How to make UITextView detect hashtags?

Question

I know that the UITextView default can detect URL, but how can i make it detect hashtags(#)?

It doesn\'t needs to detect hashtags while typing, but then

Answer 1

One option would be to use an NSAttributedString, something like this...

func convertHashtags(text:String) -> NSAttributedString {
    let attrString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: text)
    attrString.beginEditing()
    // match all hashtags
    do {
        // Find all the hashtags in our string
        let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: "(?:\\s|^)(#(?:[a-zA-Z].*?|\\d+[a-zA-Z]+.*?))\\b", options: NSRegularExpressionOptions.AnchorsMatchLines)
        let results = regex.matchesInString(text,
            options: NSMatchingOptions.WithoutAnchoringBounds, range: NSMakeRange(0, text.characters.count))
        let array = results.map { (text as NSString).substringWithRange($0.range) }
        for hashtag in array {
            // get range of the hashtag in the main string
            let range = (attrString.string as NSString).rangeOfString(hashtag)
            // add a colour to the hashtag
            attrString.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: UIColor.redColor() , range: range)
        }
        attrString.endEditing()
    }
    catch {
        attrString.endEditing()
    }
    return attrString
}

Then assign your attributedText like this...

let myText = "some text with a #hashtag in side of it #itsnoteasy"
self.textView.attributedText = convertHashtags(myText)