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iOS

Gene Bogdanovich
Gene Bogdanovich
14,618 Points
Posted by Gene Bogdanovich
Gene Bogdanovich
14,618 Points

CountableRange Question

Consider this code:

let greeting = "hello world"
if let firstSpace = greeting.index(of: " ") {
    let secondWordIndex = greeting.index(firstSpace, offsetBy: 1)
    let secondWord = greeting[secondWordIndex..<greeting.endIndex] // "world"
}

Why do we use half-open range operator (..<) instead of closed range operator (…) to get the second word?

1 Answer

Addison Francisco
Addison Francisco
9,561 Points
Addison Francisco
Addison Francisco
9,561 Points

Hey Gene,

A half-open range operator is required in this example because you are subscripting with String.endIndex which returns the index after the last character in the collection. For your example, you want the index right before that. Using a half-open range operator achieves just that. Alternatively, you could use index(before:) with a closed range operator to achieve the same result 

let secondWord = greeting[secondWordIndex...greeting.index(before: greeting.endIndex)]
Gene Bogdanovich
Gene Bogdanovich
14,618 Points
Gene Bogdanovich
Gene Bogdanovich
14,618 Points

Thank you very much! That surely cleared things up for me.