How do you use String.substringWithRange? (or, how do Ranges work in Swift?)

You can use the substringWithRange method. It takes a start and end String.Index.

var str = "Hello, playground"
str.substringWithRange(Range<String.Index>(start: str.startIndex, end: str.endIndex)) //"Hello, playground"

To change the start and end index, use advancedBy(n).

var str = "Hello, playground"
str.substringWithRange(Range<String.Index>(start: str.startIndex.advancedBy(2), end: str.endIndex.advancedBy(-1))) //"llo, playgroun"

You can also still use the NSString method with NSRange, but you have to make sure you are using an NSString like this:

let myNSString = str as NSString
myNSString.substringWithRange(NSRange(location: 0, length: 3))

Note: as JanX2 mentioned, this second method is not safe with unicode strings.

Swift 2

Simple

let str = "My String"
let subStr = str[str.startIndex.advancedBy(3)...str.startIndex.advancedBy(7)]
//"Strin"

Swift 3

let startIndex = str.index(str.startIndex, offsetBy: 3)
let endIndex = str.index(str.startIndex, offsetBy: 7)

str[startIndex...endIndex]       // "Strin"
str.substring(to: startIndex)    // "My "
str.substring(from: startIndex)  // "String"

Swift 4

substring(to:) and substring(from:) are deprecated in Swift 4.

String(str[..<startIndex])    // "My "
String(str[startIndex...])    // "String"
String(str[startIndex...endIndex])    // "Strin"

NOTE: @airspeedswift makes some very insightful points on the trade-offs of this approach, particularly the hidden performance impacts. Strings are not simple beasts, and getting to a particular index may take O(n) time, which means a loop that uses a subscript can be O(n^2). You have been warned.

You just need to add a new subscript function that takes a range and uses advancedBy() to walk to where you want:

import Foundation

extension String {
    subscript (r: Range<Int>) -> String {
        get {
            let startIndex = self.startIndex.advancedBy(r.startIndex)
            let endIndex = startIndex.advancedBy(r.endIndex - r.startIndex)

            return self[Range(start: startIndex, end: endIndex)]
        }
    }
}

var s = "Hello, playground"

println(s[0...5]) // ==> "Hello,"
println(s[0..<5]) // ==> "Hello"

(This should definitely be part of the language. Please dupe rdar://17158813)

For fun, you can also add a + operator onto the indexes:

func +<T: ForwardIndex>(var index: T, var count: Int) -> T {
  for (; count > 0; --count) {
    index = index.succ()
  }
  return index
}

s.substringWithRange(s.startIndex+2 .. s.startIndex+5)

(I don't know yet if this one should be part of the language or not.)

At the time I'm writing, no extension is perfectly Swift 4.2 compatible, so here is one that covers all the needs I could think of:

extension String {
    func substring(from: Int?, to: Int?) -> String {
        if let start = from {
            guard start < self.count else {
                return ""
            }
        }

        if let end = to {
            guard end >= 0 else {
                return ""
            }
        }

        if let start = from, let end = to {
            guard end - start >= 0 else {
                return ""
            }
        }

        let startIndex: String.Index
        if let start = from, start >= 0 {
            startIndex = self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: start)
        } else {
            startIndex = self.startIndex
        }

        let endIndex: String.Index
        if let end = to, end >= 0, end < self.count {
            endIndex = self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: end + 1)
        } else {
            endIndex = self.endIndex
        }

        return String(self[startIndex ..< endIndex])
    }

    func substring(from: Int) -> String {
        return self.substring(from: from, to: nil)
    }

    func substring(to: Int) -> String {
        return self.substring(from: nil, to: to)
    }

    func substring(from: Int?, length: Int) -> String {
        guard length > 0 else {
            return ""
        }

        let end: Int
        if let start = from, start > 0 {
            end = start + length - 1
        } else {
            end = length - 1
        }

        return self.substring(from: from, to: end)
    }

    func substring(length: Int, to: Int?) -> String {
        guard let end = to, end > 0, length > 0 else {
            return ""
        }

        let start: Int
        if let end = to, end - length > 0 {
            start = end - length + 1
        } else {
            start = 0
        }

        return self.substring(from: start, to: to)
    }
}

And then, you can use:

let string = "Hello,World!"

string.substring(from: 1, to: 7)gets you: ello,Wo

string.substring(to: 7)gets you: Hello,Wo

string.substring(from: 3)gets you: lo,World!

string.substring(from: 1, length: 4)gets you: ello

string.substring(length: 4, to: 7)gets you: o,Wo

Updated substring(from: Int?, length: Int) to support starting from zero.