NSDataDetector detecting “phone number” text

Question

The easiest way I can explain this problem is with a code sample and its output, but essentially what\'s happening is NSDataDetector is detecting a phone number

Answer 1

While it does seem that this is a bug in Apple's code, there is a simple workaround if you want to extract just the number from the string by eliminating the non-numeric characters within a block:

NSError *error = nil;
    NSDataDetector *dataDetector = [NSDataDetector dataDetectorWithTypes:NSTextCheckingTypePhoneNumber
                                                                   error:&error];

    NSArray *stringsToTest = @[
                                @"testing phone number 0123 4567891",
                                @"testing some other number 0123 4567892",
                                @"phone number 0123 4567893",
                                @"blah blah 0123 4567894",
                                @"testing telephone number 0123 4567895",
                                @"phone",
                                @"number",
                                @"my phone number 1234587985",
                                @"this string does not contain a phone number"
                               ];

    for (NSString *string in stringsToTest)
    {
        [dataDetector enumerateMatchesInString:string
                                       options:0
                                         range:NSMakeRange(0, string.length)
                                    usingBlock:^(NSTextCheckingResult *result, NSMatchingFlags flags, BOOL *stop) 
                                    {
                                        NSString *numberWithExtra = result.phoneNumber;
                                        NSCharacterSet *toRemove = [[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] invertedSet];
                                        NSString *trimmed = [[numberWithExtra componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:toRemove] componentsJoinedByString:@""];
                                        if(trimmed && trimmed.length)
                                        {
                                            NSLog(@"%@", trimmed);
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                            NSLog(@"No phone number");
                                        }
                                    }];
    }