How to remove whitespace from right end of NSString?

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UPDATE: A quick benchmark showed that Matt’s own adaption, based on Max’ & mine, performs best.

@implementation NSString (TrimmingAdditions)

- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingLeadingCharactersInSet:(NSCharacterSet *)characterSet {
    NSUInteger location = 0;
    NSUInteger length = [self length];
    unichar charBuffer[length];    
    [self getCharacters:charBuffer];

    for (location; location < length; location++) {
        if (![characterSet characterIsMember:charBuffer[location]]) {
            break;
        }
    }

    return [self substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(location, length - location)];
}

- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingTrailingCharactersInSet:(NSCharacterSet *)characterSet {
    NSUInteger location = 0;
    NSUInteger length = [self length];
    unichar charBuffer[length];    
    [self getCharacters:charBuffer];

    for (length; length > 0; length--) {
        if (![characterSet characterIsMember:charBuffer[length - 1]]) {
            break;
        }
    }

    return [self substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(location, length - location)];
}

@end

and then:

NSString *trimmedString = [yourString stringByTrimmingTrailingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterset whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];

or for leading whitespace:

NSString *trimmedString = [yourString stringByTrimmingLeadingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterset whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];

It’s implemented in an abstract fashion so you can use it with any possible NSCharacterSet, whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet being just one of them.

For convenience you might want to add these wrapper methods:

- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingLeadingWhitespace {
    return [self stringByTrimmingLeadingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]];
}

- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingTrailingWhitespace {
    return [self stringByTrimmingTrailingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]];
}

- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingLeadingWhitespaceAndNewline {
    return [self stringByTrimmingLeadingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
}

- (NSString *)stringByTrimmingTrailingWhitespaceAndNewline {
    return [self stringByTrimmingTrailingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
}

Edit: reverted back to initial version using charBuffer for better performance.

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