Replace occurrences of space in URL

Question

I have a URL in an iPhone application to work with. But the problem is that it has some spaces in the URL. I want to replace the spaces with '%20'. I know that there are the stringByReplacingOccurencesOfString and stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding methods. I also have used them. But they are not working for me. The spaces are replaced by some unusual values.

I'm applying those methods on an instance of NSString.

Damiendamietta

Check out this post here: #696411 The Answer: NSString* escapedUrl = [originalUrl stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]; – Stillmann

Answer 1

The correct format for replacing space from url is :

Swift 4.2 , Swift 5

var urlString = originalString.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlQueryAllowed)

Swift 4

var urlString = originalString.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: CharacterSet.urlQueryAllowed)

Objective C

NSString *urlString;//your url string.

urlString = [originalUrl stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@" " withString:@"%20"];

or

urlString = [originalUrl stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

iOS 9 and later

urlString = [originalUrl stringByAddingPercentEncodingWithAllowedCharacters:[NSCharacterSet URLQueryAllowedCharacterSet]];

Mentality

@RaquibulIslam I edited my answer , please check now – Mentality

I think stringByReplacingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding() is deprecated. Instead, we can use stringByRemovingPercentEncoding – Booklover

will it work for local path? i mean for documents dir – Guttersnipe

@Guttersnipe I don't think you need to format path for local document dir – Mentality

If you use this funcion in a URL that is already encoded, it will not work. Must be carefull. – Cryptography

Answer 2

Swift 2.0

let originalUrl = "http://myurl.com/my photo.png"
let urlNew:String = urlReq.stringByAddingPercentEncodingWithAllowedCharacters( NSCharacterSet.URLQueryAllowedCharacterSet())! 

Output:

http://myurl.com/my%20photo.png

Thayne

Answer 3

To replace occurence in SWIFT 3 :

let updatedUrl = originalUrl.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: NSCharacterSet.urlQueryAllowed)

Callable

will it work for local path? i mean for documents dir – Guttersnipe

Answer 4

Swift 4

Another way to replace an empty space with replacingOccurrences method:

let yourString = "http://myurl.com/my photo.png"
let urlNew:String = yourString.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "%20").trimmed 

That will replace the empty space (" ") with '%20'

Chapell

error : Value of type 'String' has no member 'trim' – Quadrat

@Mehdico that is odd, I always trim my strings. At this example you don’t have to trim the string since you know what it is. But I’d clean the project and try to run it again. at the end of the string add .trimmed – Chapell

dude i think you use an extension for String class, because .trimmed is not found in swift 4 and 4.2 – Quadrat

You don’t have to trim the string in order to replace white space – Chapell

Try this for encoding :- stringByAddingPercentEncodingWithAllowedCharacters: URLPathAllowedCharacterSet and for decoding :- [NSURL fileURLWithPath:[self.yourString stringByRemovingPercentEncoding]] – Phenomenon

will it work for local path? i mean for documents dir – Guttersnipe

Answer 5

Swift 5

var urlString = originalString.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlQueryAllowed)

Paedogenesis

will it work for local path? i mean for documents dir – Guttersnipe

Answer 6

The quickest solution: just use the stringy method...

.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "%20")

...at the end of your string, and it will do as it says.

Apple should be EMBARRASSED that their URL(string: ) method doesn't automatically do this (and more). It's 2023 and I wasted 3 hours finding this half-assed solution.

My specific example was inside cellForItemAt and having to do with optionals.

let stringOfImageURLFromFirebase = wordController?.word?.images[indexPath.item].imgUrl

let stringWithNoSpaces = string?.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "%20")

if let imageURLString = stringWithNoSpaces,
   let imageURL = URL(string: imageURLString) {
         cell.definitionImageView.loadImageFromFirebase(url: imageURL)
    } else {
        cell.definitionImageView.image = UIImage(named: "slictionarylogo")
    }

You can fuddle with .addingPercentEncoding for a long time, try NSURL nonsense, and you'll just be faster with using the obvious. Apple sucks, and should've made this painfully easy since it's such a common problem. Again, they are asleep at the wheel, and their documentation is AWFUL too.

Fleuron

Answer 7

var urlString :String = originalUrl.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: NSCharacterSet.urlQueryAllowed)!

Gruchot

You need to give more of an explanation to this code. There are others coming to this question looking for understanding not just code. Help others as well. – Irra

Answer 8

Hope this will work

let url = "https:youtube.56432fgrtxcvfname=xyz&sname=tuv"
let urlNew:String = url.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "%20")
Alamofire.request(urlNew, method: .get, headers: headers).responseJSON{
response in
print(response)    
}

It will remove all kind of spaces from the url.

Polygraph

Answer 9

Swift 5.3, clear space your string,

let str = "  www.test.com  "
let trimmed = str.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines)
print(str) // "www.test.com" 

Mustee

Answer 10

SWIFT 3.1

Simple way to replace an empty space with replacingOccurrences:

URL = URL.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "", options: .literal, range: nil)

Winfordwinfred

Doesn't work as URL has no member 'replacingOccurences'. String has that method but URL doesn't. – Trinatrinal

Answer 11

Swift 4, iOS-9

let **urlSearchVal**:String = "top 10 movies"     
let urlString = 

    "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&q=\(urlSearchVal)&key=......&type=video"   
//replace ...... above with your youtube key   
// to ignoring white space in search  
        let UrlString :String = urlString.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: NSCharacterSet.urlQueryAllowed)!

Myatt

welcome to SO. please improve the quality of you answer – Suicide

Answer 12

A Swift 4 solution. You simply pass through a string and it fills spaces with %20 and adds "http://" to the beginning to the string. Pretty sweet!

URL(fileURLWithPath: String) 

Baptistery