Is there a way to specify argument position/index in NSString stringWithFormat?

Question

C# has syntax that allows you to specify the argument index in a string format specifier, e.g.:

string message = string.Format(\"Hello, {0}. You are {1} year         


        

Answer 1

After doing more research, it appears Cocoa respects positional syntax in printf. Therefore an alternate pattern would be:

char msg[512] = {0};
NSString * format = @"Age %2$i, Name: %1$s"; // loaded from resource in practice
sprintf(msg, [format UTF8String], [name UTF8String], age);
NSString * message = [NSString stringWithCString:msg encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

However, it would be nice if there was an implementation of this on NSString.

Answer 2

NSString and CFString support reorderable/positional arguments.

NSString *string = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"Second arg: %2$@, First arg %1$@", @"<1111>", @"<22222>"];
NSLog(@"String = %@", string);

Also, see the documentation at Apple: String Resources

Answer 3

The following code fixes the bug specified in this issue. It is a workaround and renumbers the placeholders to fill gaps.

+ (id)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)format arguments:(NSArray*) arguments 
{
    NSMutableArray *filteredArguments = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:arguments.count];
    NSMutableString *correctedFormat = [[NSMutableString alloc ] initWithString:format];
    NSString *placeHolderFormat = @"%%%d$";

    int actualPlaceholderIndex = 1;

    for (int i = 1; i <= arguments.count; ++i) {
        NSString *placeHolder = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:placeHolderFormat, i];
        if ([format rangeOfString:placeHolder].location != NSNotFound) {
            [filteredArguments addObject:[arguments objectAtIndex:i - 1]];

            if (actualPlaceholderIndex != i) {
                NSString *replacementPlaceHolder = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:placeHolderFormat, actualPlaceholderIndex];
                [correctedFormat replaceAllOccurrencesOfString:placeHolder withString:replacementPlaceHolder];    
                [replacementPlaceHolder release];
            }
            actualPlaceholderIndex++;
        }
        [placeHolder release];
    }

    if (filteredArguments.count == 0) {
        //No numbered arguments found: just copy the original arguments. Mixing of unnumbered and numbered arguments is not supported.
        [filteredArguments setArray:arguments];
    }

    NSString* result;
    if (filteredArguments.count == 0) {
        //Still no arguments: don't use initWithFormat in this case because it will crash: just return the format string
        result = [NSString stringWithString:format];
    } else {
        char *argList = (char *)malloc(sizeof(NSString *) * [filteredArguments count]);
        [filteredArguments getObjects:(id *)argList];
        result = [[[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:correctedFormat arguments:argList] autorelease];
        free(argList);    
    }

    [filteredArguments release];
    [correctedFormat release];

    return result;
}