HTMLString is a library written in Swift that allows your program to add and remove HTML entities in Strings.

	Main features
🔏	Adds entities for ASCII and UTF-8/UTF-16 encodings
📝	Removes more than 2100 named entities (like &)
🔢	Supports removing decimal and hexadecimal entities
🐣	Designed to support Swift Extended Grapheme Clusters (→ 100% emoji-proof)
✅	Fully unit tested
⚡	Fast
📚	Documented
🤖	Compatible with Objective-C

Supported Platforms

This package requires Swift 5 and Xcode 12.

• iOS 9.0+
• macOS 10.10+
• tvOS 9.0+
• watchOS 2.0+
• Linux

Installation

Swift Package Manager

Add this line to your Package.swift :

.Package(url: "https://github.com/alexaubry/HTMLString", from: "6.0.0")

CocoaPods

Add this line to your Podfile:

pod 'HTMLString', '~> 6.0'

Carthage

Add this line to your Cartfile:

github "alexaubry/HTMLString" ~> 6.0

Usage

HTMLString allows you to add and remove HTML entities from a String.

🔏 Adding HTML Entities (Escape)

When a character is not supported into the specified encoding, the library will replace it with a decimal entity (supported by all browsers supporting HTML 4 and later).

For instance, the & character will be replaced by &.

You can choose between ASCII and Unicode escaping:

• Use the addingASCIIEntities function to escape for ASCII-encoded content
• Use the addingUnicodeEntities function to escape for Unicode-compatible content

💡 Pro Tip: When your content supports UTF-8 or UTF-16, use Unicode escaping as it is faster and produces a less bloated output.

Example

import HTMLString

let emoji = "My favorite emoji is 🙃"
let escapedEmoji = emoji.addingASCIIEntities() // "My favorite emoji is 🙃"
let noNeedToEscapeThatEmoji = emoji.addingUnicodeEntities() // "My favorite emoji is 🙃"

let snack = "Fish & Chips"
let escapedSnack = snack.addingASCIIEntities() // "Fish & Chips"
let weAlsoNeedToEscapeThisSnack = snack.addingUnicodeEntities() // "Fish & Chips"

📝 Removing HTML Entities (Unescape)

To remove all the HTML entities from a String, use the removingHTMLEntities function.

Example

import HTMLString

let escapedEmoji = "My favorite emoji is 🙃"
let emoji = escapedEmoji.removingHTMLEntities() // "My favorite emoji is 🙃"

let escapedSnack = "Fish & Chips"
let snack = escapedSnack.removingHTMLEntities() // "Fish & Chips"

Objective-C API

With Obj-C interoperability, you can import and use the HTMLString module from in Objective-C code.

The library introduces a set of Objective-C specific APIs as categories on the NSString type:

• -[NSString stringByAddingUnicodeEntities]; : Replaces every character incompatible with HTML Unicode encoding by a decimal HTML entitiy.
• -[NSString stringByAddingASCIIEntities]; : Replaces every character incompatible with HTML ASCII encoding by a decimal HTML entitiy.
• -[NSString stringByRemovingHTMLEntities]; : Replaces every HTML entity with the matching Unicode character.

Escaping Examples

@import HTMLString;

NSString *emoji = @"My favorite emoji is 🙃";
NSString *escapedEmoji = [emoji stringByAddingASCIIEntities]; // "My favorite emoji is 🙃"

NSString *snack = @"Fish & Chips";
NSString *escapedSnack = [snack stringByAddingUnicodeEntities]; // "Fish & Chips"

Unescaping Examples

@import HTMLString;

NSString *escapedEmoji = @"My favorite emoji is 🙃";
NSString *emoji = [escapedEmoji stringByRemovingHTMLEntities]; // "My favorite emoji is 🙃"

NSString *escapedSnack = @"Fish & Chips";
NSString *snack = [escapedSnack stringByRemovingHTMLEntities]; // "Fish & Chips"

Author

• Alexis Aubry-Akers, hi@alexisonline.dev
• You can find me on Twitter: @_alexaubry

License

HTMLString is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.