Removing quotes from a string

Swift:
Removing quotes from a string

How to:

Swift lets you tackle the quote removal job pretty handily. Here’s a quick example using replacingOccurrences(of:with:), which does exactly what it sounds like—swaps out bits of text with something else, or nothing at all.

var quotedString = "\"This is a 'quoted' string.\""
let unquotedString = quotedString.replacingOccurrences(of: "\"", with: "")
print(unquotedString) // This is a 'quoted' string.

// Dealing with single quotes? Just change the search term.
quotedString = "'Here's another example.'"
let singleQuoteRemoved = quotedString.replacingOccurrences(of: "'", with: "")
print(singleQuoteRemoved) // Heres another example.

The output will be quotes-free strings all set for whatever you’ve got planned next.

Deep Dive

We’ve been “cleaning up” strings like these since the dawn of programming. In early days, it was more about conserving precious memory and avoiding syntax errors in processing inputs. Fast forward to today, and it’s about good data hygiene—especially when dealing with JSON or preparing strings for database work. A stray quote can throw a wrench into SQL queries faster than you can say “syntax error.”

Alternatives? Well, if you find replacingOccurrences(of:with:) a bit too vanilla, you might delve into regular expressions for more complex patterns or when you want to remove quotes only in certain positions. Swift’s NSRegularExpression class is your friend here. But remember, regex can be a double-edged sword—powerful but sometimes overkill.

Implementation-wise, replacingOccurrences(of:with:) is a method provided by String in Swift, which internally calls more complex string manipulation functions that handle Unicode and other intricacies of modern text processing. It’s one of those “simple on the surface, complex under the hood” deals that Swift handles so you don’t have to.

Swift:Removing quotes from a string

How to:

Deep Dive

See Also

Swift:
Removing quotes from a string