'subscript' is unavailable: cannot subscript String with a CountableClosedRange, see the documentation comment for discussion

Question

In Swift 4, I\'m getting this error when I try to take a Substring of a String using subscript syntax.

\'subscript\' is unavaila

Answer 1

1. If you want to use subscripts on Strings like "palindrome"[1..<3] and "palindrome"[1...3], use these extensions.

Swift 4

extension String {
    subscript (bounds: CountableClosedRange<Int>) -> String {
        let start = index(startIndex, offsetBy: bounds.lowerBound)
        let end = index(startIndex, offsetBy: bounds.upperBound)
        return String(self[start...end])
    }

    subscript (bounds: CountableRange<Int>) -> String {
        let start = index(startIndex, offsetBy: bounds.lowerBound)
        let end = index(startIndex, offsetBy: bounds.upperBound)
        return String(self[start..<end])
    }
}

Swift 3

For Swift 3 replace with return self[start...end] and return self[start..<end].

2. Apple didn't build this into the Swift language because the definition of a 'character' depends on how the String is encoded. A character can be 8 to 64 bits, and the default is usually UTF-16. You can specify other String encodings in String.Index.

This is the documentation that Xcode error refers to.

More on String encodings like UTF-8 and UTF-16

Answer 2

Building on both p-sun's and Justin Oroz's answers, here are two extensions that protect against invalid indexes beyond the start and end of a string (these extensions also avoid rescanning the string from the beginning just to find the index at the end of the range):

extension String {

    subscript(bounds: CountableClosedRange<Int>) -> String {
        let lowerBound = max(0, bounds.lowerBound)
        guard lowerBound < self.count else { return "" }

        let upperBound = min(bounds.upperBound, self.count-1)
        guard upperBound >= 0 else { return "" }

        let i = index(startIndex, offsetBy: lowerBound)
        let j = index(i, offsetBy: upperBound-lowerBound)

        return String(self[i...j])
    }

    subscript(bounds: CountableRange<Int>) -> String {
        let lowerBound = max(0, bounds.lowerBound)
        guard lowerBound < self.count else { return "" }

        let upperBound = min(bounds.upperBound, self.count)
        guard upperBound >= 0 else { return "" }

        let i = index(startIndex, offsetBy: lowerBound)
        let j = index(i, offsetBy: upperBound-lowerBound)

        return String(self[i..<j])
    }
}

Answer 3

extension String {

    subscript(bounds: CountableClosedRange<Int>) -> String {
        let lowerBound = max(0, bounds.lowerBound)
        guard lowerBound < self.count else { return "" }

        let upperBound = min(bounds.upperBound, self.count-1)
        guard upperBound >= 0 else { return "" }

        let i = index(startIndex, offsetBy: lowerBound)
        let j = index(i, offsetBy: upperBound-lowerBound)

        return String(self[i...j])
    }

    subscript(bounds: CountableRange<Int>) -> String {
        let lowerBound = max(0, bounds.lowerBound)
        guard lowerBound < self.count else { return "" }

        ***let upperBound = min(bounds.upperBound, self.count-1)***
        guard upperBound >= 0 else { return "" }

        let i = index(startIndex, offsetBy: lowerBound)
        let j = index(i, offsetBy: upperBound-lowerBound)

        return String(self[i..<j])
    }
}

Answer 4

You getting this error because result of subscript with range is Substring? not Substring.

You must use following code:

let myString: String = "foobar"
let mySubstring: Substring? = myString[1..<3]

Answer 5

1. How can I resolve this error?

This error means you can't use an Int in the subscript format – you have to use a String.Index, which you can initialize with an encodedOffset Int.

let myString: String = "foobar"
let lowerBound = String.Index.init(encodedOffset: 1)
let upperBound = String.Index.init(encodedOffset: 3)
let mySubstring: Substring = myString[lowerBound..<upperBound]

2. Where is "the documentation comment for discussion" that was referred to in the error?

It's on GitHub in the Swift Standard Library repository in a file called UnavailableStringAPIs.swift.gyb in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'. link

Answer 6

You could just convert your string to an array of characters...

let aryChar = Array(myString)

Then you get all the array functionality...