NSDataDetector detect special characters in links

Question

I'm using NSDataDetector to scan a text for links and then return them. I've got it working for the regular alphabet, but since I live in a country with some additions to the english alphabet I can't the NSDataDetector to detect links containing these characters.

Specifically it's the "åäö" that doesn't work. My code looks like this:

 var urlStrings = [String]()

 let types: NSTextCheckingType = .Link

 do {
        let detector = try NSDataDetector(types: types.rawValue)
        let matches = detector.matchesInString(self, options: .ReportCompletion, range: NSMakeRange(0, self.characters.count))

        for match in matches {

            if let url = match.URL?.absoluteString {
                urlStrings.append(url)
            }
        }
        return urlStrings
      } catch {
        return urlStrings
   }

Answer 1

Hello I do a little modification to your code and work perfectly for me

func detectLinks() -> [String]
{
    let string = "http://www.gåäögle.com/testMasåäö http://www.google.com/testMasåäö http://www.gp.se/livsstil/konsument/vegetariskt-ä4r-inte-alltid-så5-nyttigt-1.1236926"
    var urlStrings = [String]()

    let types: NSTextCheckingType = .Link

    do {
        let detector = try NSDataDetector(types: types.rawValue)
        let matches = detector.matchesInString(string, options: .ReportCompletion, range: NSMakeRange(0, string.characters.count))

        for match in matches {

            if let url = match.URL?.absoluteString {
                urlStrings.append(url)
            }
        }
        return urlStrings
    } catch {
        return urlStrings
    }


}

Maybe your problem is related to self.characters.count you can check what is wrong but to me this code works fine, urlStrings contains 3 strings after run this code. I hope this help you

Answer 2

I'm using this code to make links that don't crash if there is special characters in it like: "æøå"

var url = "http://www.someurlwithæøåorsomethingelse.com"
let safeUrl = url.stringByAddingPercentEncodingWithAllowedCharacters(NSCharacterSet.URLQueryAllowedCharacterSet())