How to check if NSString begins with a certain character

You can use the -hasPrefix: method of NSString:

Objective-C:

NSString* output = nil;
if([string hasPrefix:@"*"]) {
    output = [string substringFromIndex:1];
}

Swift:

var output:String?
if string.hasPrefix("*") {
    output = string.substringFromIndex(string.startIndex.advancedBy(1))
}

You can use:

NSString *newString;
if ( [[myString characterAtIndex:0] isEqualToString:@"*"] ) {
     newString = [myString substringFromIndex:1];
}

hasPrefix works especially well. for example if you were looking for a http url in a NSString, you would use componentsSeparatedByString to create an NSArray and the iterate the array using hasPrefix to find the elements that begin with http.

NSArray *allStringsArray = 
   [myStringThatHasHttpUrls componentsSeparatedByString:@" "]

for (id myArrayElement in allStringsArray) {
    NSString *theString = [myArrayElement description];
    if ([theString hasPrefix:@"http"]) {
        NSLog(@"The URL  is %@", [myArrayElement description]);
    }

}

hasPrefix returns a Boolean value that indicates whether a given string matches the beginning characters of the receiver.

- (BOOL)hasPrefix:(NSString *)aString,

parameter aString is a string that you are looking for Return Value is YES if aString matches the beginning characters of the receiver, otherwise NO. Returns NO if aString is empty.

How to check if NSString begins with a certain character

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