Read a file/URL line-by-line in Swift

Solution 1:

(The code is for Swift 2.2/Xcode 7.3 now. Older versions can be found in the edit history if somebody needs it. An updated version for Swift 3 is provided at the end.)

The following Swift code is heavily inspired by the various answers to How to read data from NSFileHandle line by line?. It reads from the file in chunks, and converts complete lines to strings.

The default line delimiter (\n), string encoding (UTF-8) and chunk size (4096) can be set with optional parameters.

class StreamReader  {

    let encoding : UInt
    let chunkSize : Int

    var fileHandle : NSFileHandle!
    let buffer : NSMutableData!
    let delimData : NSData!
    var atEof : Bool = false

    init?(path: String, delimiter: String = "\n", encoding : UInt = NSUTF8StringEncoding, chunkSize : Int = 4096) {
        self.chunkSize = chunkSize
        self.encoding = encoding

        if let fileHandle = NSFileHandle(forReadingAtPath: path),
            delimData = delimiter.dataUsingEncoding(encoding),
            buffer = NSMutableData(capacity: chunkSize)
        {
            self.fileHandle = fileHandle
            self.delimData = delimData
            self.buffer = buffer
        } else {
            self.fileHandle = nil
            self.delimData = nil
            self.buffer = nil
            return nil
        }
    }

    deinit {
        self.close()
    }

    /// Return next line, or nil on EOF.
    func nextLine() -> String? {
        precondition(fileHandle != nil, "Attempt to read from closed file")

        if atEof {
            return nil
        }

        // Read data chunks from file until a line delimiter is found:
        var range = buffer.rangeOfData(delimData, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, buffer.length))
        while range.location == NSNotFound {
            let tmpData = fileHandle.readDataOfLength(chunkSize)
            if tmpData.length == 0 {
                // EOF or read error.
                atEof = true
                if buffer.length > 0 {
                    // Buffer contains last line in file (not terminated by delimiter).
                    let line = NSString(data: buffer, encoding: encoding)

                    buffer.length = 0
                    return line as String?
                }
                // No more lines.
                return nil
            }
            buffer.appendData(tmpData)
            range = buffer.rangeOfData(delimData, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, buffer.length))
        }

        // Convert complete line (excluding the delimiter) to a string:
        let line = NSString(data: buffer.subdataWithRange(NSMakeRange(0, range.location)),
            encoding: encoding)
        // Remove line (and the delimiter) from the buffer:
        buffer.replaceBytesInRange(NSMakeRange(0, range.location + range.length), withBytes: nil, length: 0)

        return line as String?
    }

    /// Start reading from the beginning of file.
    func rewind() -> Void {
        fileHandle.seekToFileOffset(0)
        buffer.length = 0
        atEof = false
    }

    /// Close the underlying file. No reading must be done after calling this method.
    func close() -> Void {
        fileHandle?.closeFile()
        fileHandle = nil
    }
}

Usage:

if let aStreamReader = StreamReader(path: "/path/to/file") {
    defer {
        aStreamReader.close()
    }
    while let line = aStreamReader.nextLine() {
        print(line)
    }
}

You can even use the reader with a for-in loop

for line in aStreamReader {
    print(line)
}

by implementing the SequenceType protocol (compare http://robots.thoughtbot.com/swift-sequences):

extension StreamReader : SequenceType {
    func generate() -> AnyGenerator<String> {
        return AnyGenerator {
            return self.nextLine()
        }
    }
}

Update for Swift 3/Xcode 8 beta 6: Also "modernized" to use guard and the new Data value type:

class StreamReader  {

    let encoding : String.Encoding
    let chunkSize : Int
    var fileHandle : FileHandle!
    let delimData : Data
    var buffer : Data
    var atEof : Bool

    init?(path: String, delimiter: String = "\n", encoding: String.Encoding = .utf8,
          chunkSize: Int = 4096) {

        guard let fileHandle = FileHandle(forReadingAtPath: path),
            let delimData = delimiter.data(using: encoding) else {
                return nil
        }
        self.encoding = encoding
        self.chunkSize = chunkSize
        self.fileHandle = fileHandle
        self.delimData = delimData
        self.buffer = Data(capacity: chunkSize)
        self.atEof = false
    }

    deinit {
        self.close()
    }

    /// Return next line, or nil on EOF.
    func nextLine() -> String? {
        precondition(fileHandle != nil, "Attempt to read from closed file")

        // Read data chunks from file until a line delimiter is found:
        while !atEof {
            if let range = buffer.range(of: delimData) {
                // Convert complete line (excluding the delimiter) to a string:
                let line = String(data: buffer.subdata(in: 0..<range.lowerBound), encoding: encoding)
                // Remove line (and the delimiter) from the buffer:
                buffer.removeSubrange(0..<range.upperBound)
                return line
            }
            let tmpData = fileHandle.readData(ofLength: chunkSize)
            if tmpData.count > 0 {
                buffer.append(tmpData)
            } else {
                // EOF or read error.
                atEof = true
                if buffer.count > 0 {
                    // Buffer contains last line in file (not terminated by delimiter).
                    let line = String(data: buffer as Data, encoding: encoding)
                    buffer.count = 0
                    return line
                }
            }
        }
        return nil
    }

    /// Start reading from the beginning of file.
    func rewind() -> Void {
        fileHandle.seek(toFileOffset: 0)
        buffer.count = 0
        atEof = false
    }

    /// Close the underlying file. No reading must be done after calling this method.
    func close() -> Void {
        fileHandle?.closeFile()
        fileHandle = nil
    }
}

extension StreamReader : Sequence {
    func makeIterator() -> AnyIterator<String> {
        return AnyIterator {
            return self.nextLine()
        }
    }
}

Solution 2:

Efficient and convenient class for reading text file line by line (Swift 4, Swift 5)

Note: This code is platform independent (macOS, iOS, ubuntu)

import Foundation

/// Read text file line by line in efficient way
public class LineReader {
   public let path: String

   fileprivate let file: UnsafeMutablePointer<FILE>!

   init?(path: String) {
      self.path = path
      file = fopen(path, "r")
      guard file != nil else { return nil }
   }

   public var nextLine: String? {
      var line:UnsafeMutablePointer<CChar>? = nil
      var linecap:Int = 0
      defer { free(line) }
      return getline(&line, &linecap, file) > 0 ? String(cString: line!) : nil
   }

   deinit {
      fclose(file)
   }
}

extension LineReader: Sequence {
   public func  makeIterator() -> AnyIterator<String> {
      return AnyIterator<String> {
         return self.nextLine
      }
   }
}

Usage:

guard let reader = LineReader(path: "/Path/to/file.txt") else {
    return; // cannot open file
}

for line in reader {
    print(">" + line.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines))      
}

Repository on github

Solution 3:

Swift 4.2 Safe syntax

class LineReader {

    let path: String

    init?(path: String) {
        self.path = path
        guard let file = fopen(path, "r") else {
            return nil
        }
        self.file = file
    }
    deinit {
        fclose(file)
    }

    var nextLine: String? {
        var line: UnsafeMutablePointer<CChar>?
        var linecap = 0
        defer {
            free(line)
        }
        let status = getline(&line, &linecap, file)
        guard status > 0, let unwrappedLine = line else {
            return nil
        }
        return String(cString: unwrappedLine)
    }

    private let file: UnsafeMutablePointer<FILE>
}

extension LineReader: Sequence {
    func makeIterator() -> AnyIterator<String> {
        return AnyIterator<String> {
            return self.nextLine
        }
    }
}

Usage:

guard let reader = LineReader(path: "/Path/to/file.txt") else {
    return
}
reader.forEach { line in
    print(line.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines))      
}

Solution 4:

I'm late to the game, but here's small class I wrote for that purpose. After some different attempts (try to subclass NSInputStream) I found this to be a reasonable and simple approach.

Remember to #import <stdio.h> in your bridging header.

// Use is like this:
let readLine = ReadLine(somePath)
while let line = readLine.readLine() {
    // do something...
}

class ReadLine {

    private var buf = UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>.alloc(1024)
    private var n: Int = 1024

    let path: String
    let mode: String = "r"

    private lazy var filepointer: UnsafeMutablePointer<FILE> = {
        let csmode = self.mode.withCString { cs in return cs }
        let cspath = self.path.withCString { cs in return cs }

        return fopen(cspath, csmode)
    }()

    init(path: String) {
        self.path = path
    }

    func readline() -> String? {
        // unsafe for unknown input
        if getline(&buf, &n, filepointer) > 0 {
            return String.fromCString(UnsafePointer<CChar>(buf))
        }

        return nil
    }

    deinit {
        buf.dealloc(n)
        fclose(filepointer)
    }
}

Read a file/URL line-by-line in Swift

Solution 1:

Solution 2:

Solution 3:

Solution 4:

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