Finding out whether a string is numeric or not

Question

How can we check if a string is made up of numbers only. I am taking out a substring from a string and want to check if it is a numeric substring or not.

NSS         


        

Answer 1

Swift 3 solution if need to verify that the string has only digits:

CharacterSet.decimalDigits.isSuperset(of: CharacterSet(charactersIn: myString))

Answer 2

to be clear, this functions for integers in strings.

heres a little helper category based off of John's answer above:

in .h file

@interface NSString (NumberChecking)

+(bool)isNumber:(NSString *)string;

@end

in .m file

#import "NSString+NumberChecking.h"

@implementation NSString (NumberChecking)

+(bool)isNumber {
    if([self rangeOfCharacterFromSet:[[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] invertedSet]].location == NSNotFound) {
        return YES;
    }else {
        return NO;
    }
}

@end

usage:

#import "NSString+NumberChecking.h"

if([someString isNumber]) {
    NSLog(@"is a number");
}else {
    NSLog(@"not a number");
}

Answer 3

Swift extension :

extension NSString {
func isNumString() -> Bool {
    let numbers = NSCharacterSet(charactersInString: "0123456789.").invertedSet
    let range = self.rangeOfCharacterFromSet(numbers).location
    if range == NSNotFound {
        return true
    }
    return false
}  }

Answer 4

I'd suggest using the numberFromString: method from the NSNumberFormatter class, as if the number is not valid, it will return nil; otherwise, it will return you an NSNumber.

NSNumberFormatter *nf = [[[NSNumberFormatter alloc] init] autorelease];
BOOL isDecimal = [nf numberFromString:newString] != nil;

Answer 5

When you have digits that are from mixed languages, that use (or don't) the 0-9 digits formats, you will need to run a regex that will look for any number, next thing is to convert all digits to be 0-9 format (if you need the actual value):

// Will look for any language digits
let regex = try NSRegularExpression(pattern: "[^[:digit:]]", options: .caseInsensitive)
let digitsString = regex.stringByReplacingMatches(in: string,
                                                         options: NSRegularExpression.MatchingOptions(rawValue: 0),
                                                         range: NSMakeRange(0, string.count), withTemplate: "")
// Converting the digits to be 0-9 format
let numberFormatter = NumberFormatter()
numberFormatter.locale = Locale(identifier: "EN")
let finalValue = numberFormatter.number(from: digitsString)

if let finalValue = finalValue {
  let actualValue = finalValue.doubleValue
}

Answer 6

Here's one way that doesn't rely on the limited precision of attempting to parse the string as a number:

NSCharacterSet* notDigits = [[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] invertedSet];
if ([newString rangeOfCharacterFromSet:notDigits].location == NSNotFound)
{
    // newString consists only of the digits 0 through 9
}

See +[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] and -[NSString rangeOfCharacterFromSet:].