HTML character decoding in Objective-C / Cocoa Touch

Question

First of all, I found this: Objective C HTML escape/unescape, but it doesn\'t work for me.

My encoded characters (come from a RSS feed, btw) look like this: &a

Answer 1

you can use just this function to solve this problem.

+ (NSString*) decodeHtmlUnicodeCharactersToString:(NSString*)str
{
    NSMutableString* string = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:str];  // #&39; replace with '
    NSString* unicodeStr = nil;
    NSString* replaceStr = nil;
    int counter = -1;

    for(int i = 0; i < [string length]; ++i)
    {
        unichar char1 = [string characterAtIndex:i];    
        for (int k = i + 1; k < [string length] - 1; ++k)
        {
            unichar char2 = [string characterAtIndex:k];    

            if (char1 == '&'  && char2 == '#' ) 
            {   
                ++counter;
                unicodeStr = [string substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(i + 2 , 2)];    
                // read integer value i.e, 39
                replaceStr = [string substringWithRange:NSMakeRange (i, 5)];     //     #&39;
                [string replaceCharactersInRange: [string rangeOfString:replaceStr] withString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%c",[unicodeStr intValue]]];
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    [string autorelease];

    if (counter > 1)
        return  [self decodeHtmlUnicodeCharactersToString:string]; 
    else
        return string;
}