How can I format an NSTextField or UITextField?

Question

I want to format any text that fits in an NSTextField / UITextField to look like

###-###-#### 

Here are a few possible inputs.

 1112223333 111.222.3333 [phone] (111) 2223333 

Answer 1

I tested this code and it works for all your examples:

 - (NSString *)convertNumber:(NSString *)input { NSMutableString *result = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:15]; NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:input]; NSCharacterSet *numbers = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"1234567890"]; NSString *temp; NSInteger location = 0; // Get first group [scanner scanUpToCharactersFromSet:numbers intoString:&temp]; location = [scanner scanLocation]; [scanner scanCharactersFromSet:numbers intoString:&temp]; [result appendString:temp]; if ([scanner scanLocation] < location + 4) { // Only scanned three numbers - get second group [scanner scanUpToCharactersFromSet:numbers intoString:&temp]; location = [scanner scanLocation]; [scanner scanCharactersFromSet:numbers intoString:&temp]; [result appendString:temp]; if ([scanner scanLocation] < location + 4) { // Only scanned three numbers - get last group [scanner scanUpToCharactersFromSet:numbers intoString:&temp]; [scanner scanCharactersFromSet:numbers intoString:&temp]; [result appendString:temp]; } } else if ([scanner scanLocation] < location + 7) { // Scanned six numbers - get last group [scanner scanUpToCharactersFromSet:numbers intoString:&temp]; [scanner scanCharactersFromSet:numbers intoString:&temp]; [result appendString:temp]; } // Add dashes if ([result length] > 6) { [result insertString:@"-" atIndex:3]; [result insertString:@"-" atIndex:7]; } return result; } 

Any number of non-numeric characters (or none) between groups of 3, 3, and 4 will be ignored.

Warning: it may leak everywhere and a crash may occur during unexpected entry.

Answer 2

Regular expressions are your friend:

 NSString * reformat( NSString * number ) { NSRegularExpression * noDigits = [ NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern: @"\\D" options: 0 error: NULL ] ; NSString * onlyDigits = [ noDigits stringByReplacingMatchesInString: number options: 0 range: NSMakeRange ( 0, number.length ) withTemplate: @"" ] ; NSRegularExpression * phoneNumberPattern = [ NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern: @"^(\\d\\d\\d)(\\d\\d\\d)(\\d\\d\\d\\d)$" options: 0 error: NULL ] ; NSString * result = [ phoneNumberPattern stringByReplacingMatchesInString: onlyDigits options: 0 range: NSMakeRange( 0, onlyDigits.length ) withTemplate: @"$1-$2-$3" ] ; return result ; } 

You might want to check out some alternatives to the last template change if you encounter anything other than 10 digits. Alternatively, place a length check immediately after calculating onlyDigits .

Answer 3

Try this method

 -(void)NumberFormatter:(NSString *)originalString { NSCharacterSet * set = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"]; if ([originalString rangeOfCharacterFromSet:set].location == NSNotFound) { NSMutableString *strippedString = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:originalString.length]; NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:originalString]; NSCharacterSet *numbers = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"0123456789"]; while ([scanner isAtEnd] == NO) { NSString *buffer; if ([scanner scanCharactersFromSet:numbers intoString:&buffer]) { [strippedString appendString:buffer]; } else { [scanner setScanLocation:([scanner scanLocation] + 1)]; } } if ([strippedString length]<10) { NSLog(@"it is invalid string ,must contain atleast 10 numbers"); } else { NSString *finalstring= [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@-%@-%@",[strippedString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(0, 3)],[strippedString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(3, 3)],[strippedString substringFromIndex:6]]; NSLog(@"This is the formatted number==%@",finalstring); } } else NSLog(@"string is invalid,It contains characters"); }