swiftstring

Get the length of a String

How do you get the length of a String? For example, I have a variable defined like:

var test1: String = "Scott"

However, I can't seem to find a length method on the string.

Solution

  • As of Swift 4+

    It's just:

    test1.count

    for reasons.

    (Thanks to Martin R)

    As of Swift 2:

    With Swift 2, Apple has changed global functions to protocol extensions, extensions that match any type conforming to a protocol. Thus the new syntax is:

    test1.characters.count

    (Thanks to JohnDifool for the heads up)

    As of Swift 1

    Use the count characters method:

    let unusualMenagerie = "Koala 🐨, Snail 🐌, Penguin 🐧, Dromedary 🐪"
println("unusualMenagerie has \(count(unusualMenagerie)) characters")
// prints "unusualMenagerie has 40 characters"

    right from the Apple Swift Guide

    (note, for versions of Swift earlier than 1.2, this would be countElements(unusualMenagerie) instead)

    for your variable, it would be

    length = count(test1) // was countElements in earlier versions of Swift

    Or you can use test1.utf16count