How to split a string in Objective-C without breaking the code

Question

Xcode throws all sorts of errors when I insert a line break into a string. E.g., this fails:

if (newMaximumNumberOfSides > 12) {
    NSLog(@"Invalid maximum number of sides: %i is greater than 
            the maximum of 12 allowed.", newMaximumNumberOfSides);
}

But this works:

if (newMaximumNumberOfSides > 12) {
    NSLog(@"Invalid maximum number of sides: %i is greater than the maximum of 12 allowed.", 
          newMaximumNumberOfSides);
}

I'd prefer the former because it's cleaner to look at (shorter lines), but the code breaks. What's the best way to deal with this? (Subquestion: is this referenced in any of the syntax guides? I searched all my books for "line break" to no effect.)

Scott · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-25 23:42:05Z

8

All these should work:

NSString *s = @"this" \
        @" is a" \
        @" very long" \
        @" string!";

    NSLog(s);


    NSString *s1 = @"this" 
        @" is a" 
        @" very long" 
        @" string!";

    NSLog(s1);

    NSString *s2 = @"this"
        " is a"
        " very long"
        " string!";

    NSLog(s2);

    NSString *s3 = @"this\
 is a\
 very long\
 string!";

    NSLog(s3);

answered Feb 25, 2011 at 23:42

Scott

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Steven Fisher · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-25 23:46:11Z

8

if (newMaximumNumberOfSides > 12) {
    NSLog(@"Invalid maximum number of sides: %i is greater than " 
            "the maximum of 12 allowed.", newMaximumNumberOfSides);
}

edited Feb 25, 2011 at 23:46

Steven Fisher

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answered Feb 25, 2011 at 23:40

Julio Gorgé

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Comments

sbooth · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-25 23:51:25Z

2

String literals in C may not contain newlines. To quote http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/cpp/Tokenization.html:

No string literal may extend past the end of a line. Older versions of GCC accepted multi-line string constants. You may use continued lines instead, or string constant concatenation

The other answers already given give examples of both continued lines and string concatenation.

answered Feb 25, 2011 at 23:51

sbooth

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