Regex replace html string in Swift - ios

Question

I am trying to use Regex in Swift to replace an HTML string by a string. Basically anytime there is a set of numbers such as '1, 2 and 3 " preceded by the word 'Appendices' or a single number such 1 preceeded by the world 'Appendix' , I would like to create hyperlink tags for it.
For example I have a string:
See Appendices 1 , 9 and 27. You should also see the Appendices 28, 45 and 37. Also see Appendix 19. See also chapter 19 and Verses 38 and 45
And I would like to replace it with:
See Appendices <a href="Appendix://1"/>1</a> , <a href="Appendix://9"/>9</a> and <a href="Appendix://27"/>27</a> . You should also see the Appendices <a href="Appendix://28"/>28</a> , <a href="Appendix://45"/>45</a> and <a href="Appendix://37"/>37</a> . Also see <a href="Appendix://19"/>Appendix 19</a> . See also chapter 19 and Verses 38 and 45

Answer 1

I ended up writing a method that does this:
func findAndReplaceAppendixDeeplinks(theText:String)->String{
var text = theText
var innerRangeIncrement:Int = 0
do {
let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: "(Appendix|Appendices|App.) (\\d+)((, |and|&)?( )?(\\d+)?)+", options: NSRegularExpressionOptions.CaseInsensitive)
let range = NSMakeRange(0, text.characters.count)
let matches = regex!.matchesInString(text, options: NSMatchingOptions.WithoutAnchoringBounds, range: range)
innerRangeIncrement = 0
for match in matches {
let theMatch:String = (text as NSString).substringWithRange(match.range)
print("the new match is \(theMatch)")
do {
let regex1 = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: "(\\d+)", options: NSRegularExpressionOptions.CaseInsensitive)
let innerMatches = regex1!.matchesInString(theText, options: NSMatchingOptions.WithoutAnchoringBounds, range: match.range)
for innerMatch in innerMatches{
let innerString:String = (theText as NSString).substringWithRange(innerMatch.range)
print("innerString is \(innerString)")
let replacementString = "\(innerString)"
printIfDebug("replacementString is \(replacementString)")
let innerRange = NSRange(location: innerMatch.range.location + innerRangeIncrement , length: innerMatch.range.length)
print("now looking for character position \(innerMatch.range.location + innerRangeIncrement)")
text = regex1!.stringByReplacingMatchesInString(text, options: NSMatchingOptions.WithoutAnchoringBounds, range: innerRange, withTemplate: replacementString)
innerRangeIncrement = innerRangeIncrement + replacementString.length - innerString.length
printIfDebug("inner increment value is \(innerRangeIncrement)")
printIfDebug(text)
}
printIfDebug("outer increment value is \(innerRangeIncrement)")
}
}
}
return text
}