What is the most succinct way to remove the first character from a string in Swift?

If you're using Swift 3, you can ignore the second section of this answer. Good news is, this is now actually succinct again! Just using String's new remove(at:) method.

var myString = "Hello, World"
myString.remove(at: myString.startIndex)

myString // "ello, World"

I like the global dropFirst() function for this.

let original = "Hello" // Hello
let sliced = dropFirst(original) // ello

It's short, clear, and works for anything that conforms to the Sliceable protocol.

If you're using Swift 2, this answer has changed. You can still use dropFirst, but not without dropping the first character from your strings characters property and then converting the result back to a String. dropFirst has also become a method, not a function.

let original = "Hello" // Hello
let sliced = String(original.characters.dropFirst()) // ello

Another alternative is to use the suffix function to splice the string's UTF16View. Of course, this has to be converted back to a String afterwards as well.

let original = "Hello" // Hello
let sliced = String(suffix(original.utf16, original.utf16.count - 1)) // ello

All this is to say that the solution I originally provided has turned out not to be the most succinct way of doing this in newer versions of Swift. I recommend falling back on @chris' solution using removeAtIndex() if you're looking for a short and intuitive solution.

var original = "Hello" // Hello
let removedChar = original.removeAtIndex(original.startIndex)

original // ello

And as pointed out by @vacawama in the comments below, another option that doesn't modify the original String is to use substringFromIndex.

let original = "Hello" // Hello
let substring = original.substringFromIndex(advance(original.startIndex, 1)) // ello

Or if you happen to be looking to drop a character off the beginning and end of the String, you can use substringWithRange. Just be sure to guard against the condition when startIndex + n > endIndex - m.

let original = "Hello" // Hello

let newStartIndex = advance(original.startIndex, 1)
let newEndIndex = advance(original.endIndex, -1)

let substring = original.substringWithRange(newStartIndex..<newEndIndex) // ell

The last line can also be written using subscript notation.

let substring = original[newStartIndex..<newEndIndex]

Update for Swift 4

In Swift 4, String conforms to Collection again, so it is possible to use dropFirst and dropLast to trim the beginnings and ends of strings. The result is of type Substring, so you need to pass that to the String constructor to get back a String:

let str = "hello"
let result1 = String(str.dropFirst())    // "ello"
let result2 = String(str.dropLast())     // "hell"

dropFirst() and dropLast() also take an Int to specify the number of characters to drop:

let result3 = String(str.dropLast(3))    // "he"
let result4 = String(str.dropFirst(4))   // "o"

If you specify more characters to drop than are in the string, the result will be the empty string ("").

let result5 = String(str.dropFirst(10))  // ""

Update for Swift 3

If you just want to remove the first character and want to change the original string in place, then see @MickMacCallum's answer. If you want to create a new string in the process, use substring(from:). With an extension to String, you can hide the ugliness of substring(from:) and substring(to:) to create useful additions to trim the start and ends of a String:

extension String {
    func chopPrefix(_ count: Int = 1) -> String {
        return substring(from: index(startIndex, offsetBy: count))
    }

    func chopSuffix(_ count: Int = 1) -> String {
        return substring(to: index(endIndex, offsetBy: -count))
    }
}

"hello".chopPrefix()    // "ello"
"hello".chopPrefix(3)   // "lo"

"hello".chopSuffix()    // "hell"
"hello".chopSuffix(3)   // "he"

Like dropFirst and dropLast before them, these functions will crash if there aren't enough letters available in the String. The onus is on the caller to use them properly. This is a valid design decision. One could write them to return an optional which then would have to be unwrapped by the caller.

Swift 2.x

Alas in Swift 2, dropFirst and dropLast (the previous best solution) aren't as convenient as they were before. With an extension to String, you can hide the ugliness of substringFromIndex and substringToIndex:

extension String {
    func chopPrefix(count: Int = 1) -> String {
         return self.substringFromIndex(advance(self.startIndex, count))
    }

    func chopSuffix(count: Int = 1) -> String {
        return self.substringToIndex(advance(self.endIndex, -count))
    }
}

"hello".chopPrefix()    // "ello"
"hello".chopPrefix(3)   // "lo"

"hello".chopSuffix()    // "hell"
"hello".chopSuffix(3)   // "he"

In Swift 1.2, you'll need to call chopPrefix like this:

"hello".chopPrefix(count: 3)  // "lo"

or you can add an underscore _ to the function definitions to suppress the parameter name:

extension String {
    func chopPrefix(_ count: Int = 1) -> String {
         return self.substringFromIndex(advance(self.startIndex, count))
    }

    func chopSuffix(_ count: Int = 1) -> String {
        return self.substringToIndex(advance(self.endIndex, -count))
    }
}

Swift 2.2

'advance' is unavailable: call the 'advancedBy(n)' method on the index

    func chopPrefix(count: Int = 1) -> String {
        return self.substringFromIndex(self.startIndex.advancedBy(count))
    }

    func chopSuffix(count: Int = 1) -> String {
        return self.substringFromIndex(self.endIndex.advancedBy(count))
    }

Swift 3.0

    func chopPrefix(_ count: Int = 1) -> String {
        return self.substring(from: self.characters.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: count))
    }

    func chopSuffix(_ count: Int = 1) -> String {
       return self.substring(to: self.characters.index(self.endIndex, offsetBy: -count))
    }

Swift 3.2

A view of the string's contents as a collection of characters.
@available(swift, deprecated: 3.2, message: "Please use String or Substring directly")
public var characters: String.CharacterView

func chopPrefix(_ count: Int = 1) -> String {
    if count >= 0 && count <= self.count {
        return self.substring(from: String.Index(encodedOffset: count))
    }
    return ""
}

func chopSuffix(_ count: Int = 1) -> String {
    if count >= 0 && count <= self.count {
        return self.substring(to: String.Index(encodedOffset: self.count - count))
    }
    return ""
}

Swift 4

extension String {

    func chopPrefix(_ count: Int = 1) -> String {
        if count >= 0 && count <= self.count {
            let indexStartOfText = self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: count)
            return String(self[indexStartOfText...])
        }
        return ""
    }

    func chopSuffix(_ count: Int = 1) -> String {
        if count >= 0 && count <= self.count {
            let indexEndOfText = self.index(self.endIndex, offsetBy: -count)
            return String(self[..<indexEndOfText])
        }
        return ""
    }
}

What is the most succinct way to remove the first character from a string in Swift?

Tags:

String

Swift

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