How can I concatenate NSAttributedStrings?

Question

I need to search some strings and set some attributes prior to merging the strings, so having NSStrings -> Concatenate them -> Make NSAttributedString is not an option, is t

Answer 1

2020 | SWIFT 5.1:

You're able to add 2 NSMutableAttributedString by the following way:

let concatenated = NSAttrStr1.append(NSAttrStr2)

Another way works with NSMutableAttributedString and NSAttributedString both:

[NSAttrStr1, NSAttrStr2].joinWith(separator: "")

---

Another way is....

var full = NSAttrStr1 + NSAttrStr2 + NSAttrStr3

and:

var full = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "hello ")
// NSAttrStr1 == 1


full += NSAttrStr1 // full == "hello 1"       
full += " world"   // full == "hello 1 world"

You can do this with the following extension:

// works with NSAttributedString and NSMutableAttributedString!
public extension NSAttributedString {
    static func + (left: NSAttributedString, right: NSAttributedString) -> NSAttributedString {
        let leftCopy = NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: left)
        leftCopy.append(right)
        return leftCopy
    }

    static func + (left: NSAttributedString, right: String) -> NSAttributedString {
        let leftCopy = NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: left)
        let rightAttr = NSMutableAttributedString(string: right)
        leftCopy.append(rightAttr)
        return leftCopy
    }

    static func + (left: String, right: NSAttributedString) -> NSAttributedString {
        let leftAttr = NSMutableAttributedString(string: left)
        leftAttr.append(right)
        return leftAttr
    }
}

public extension NSMutableAttributedString {
    static func += (left: NSMutableAttributedString, right: String) -> NSMutableAttributedString {
        let rightAttr = NSMutableAttributedString(string: right)
        left.append(rightAttr)
        return left
    }

    static func += (left: NSMutableAttributedString, right: NSAttributedString) -> NSMutableAttributedString {
        left.append(right)
        return left
    }
}

Answer 2

You can try SwiftyFormat It uses following syntax

let format = "#{{user}} mentioned you in a comment. #{{comment}}"
let message = NSAttributedString(format: format,
                                 attributes: commonAttributes,
                                 mapping: ["user": attributedName, "comment": attributedComment])

Answer 3

If you're using Swift, you can just overload the + operator so that you can concatenate them in the same way you concatenate normal strings:

// concatenate attributed strings
func + (left: NSAttributedString, right: NSAttributedString) -> NSAttributedString
{
    let result = NSMutableAttributedString()
    result.append(left)
    result.append(right)
    return result
}

Now you can concatenate them just by adding them:

let helloworld = NSAttributedString(string: "Hello ") + NSAttributedString(string: "World")

Answer 4

If you're using Cocoapods, an alternative to both above answers that let you avoid mutability in your own code is to use the excellent NSAttributedString+CCLFormat category on NSAttributedStrings that lets you write something like:

NSAttributedString *first = ...;
NSAttributedString *second = ...;
NSAttributedString *combined = [NSAttributedString attributedStringWithFormat:@"%@%@", first, second];

It of course it just uses NSMutableAttributedString under the covers.

It also has the extra advantage of being a fully fledged formatting function — so it can do a lot more than appending strings together.

Answer 5

I'd recommend you use a single mutable attributed string a @Linuxios suggested, and here's another example of that:

NSMutableAttributedString *mutableAttString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] init];

NSString *plainString = // ...
NSDictionary *attributes = // ... a dictionary with your attributes.
NSAttributedString *newAttString = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:plainString attributes:attributes];

[mutableAttString appendAttributedString:newAttString];

However, just for the sake of getting all the options out there, you could also create a single mutable attributed string, made from a formatted NSString containing the input strings already put together. You could then use addAttributes: range: to add the attributes after the fact to the ranges containing the input strings. I recommend the former way though.

Answer 6

Swift 3: Simply create a NSMutableAttributedString and append the attributed strings to them.

let mutableAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString()

let boldAttribute = [
    NSFontAttributeName: UIFont(name: "GothamPro-Medium", size: 13)!,
    NSForegroundColorAttributeName: Constants.defaultBlackColor
]

let regularAttribute = [
    NSFontAttributeName: UIFont(name: "Gotham Pro", size: 13)!,
    NSForegroundColorAttributeName: Constants.defaultBlackColor
]

let boldAttributedString = NSAttributedString(string: "Warning: ", attributes: boldAttribute)
let regularAttributedString = NSAttributedString(string: "All tasks within this project will be deleted.  If you're sure you want to delete all tasks and this project, type DELETE to confirm.", attributes: regularAttribute)
mutableAttributedString.append(boldAttributedString)
mutableAttributedString.append(regularAttributedString)

descriptionTextView.attributedText = mutableAttributedString

swift5 upd:

    let captionAttribute = [
        NSAttributedString.Key.font: Font.captionsRegular,
        NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.appGray
    ]