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textField.text.isEmpty textField.text != ""

These two functions regard spaces as characters. However, I would like my to recognise when the text field has no spaces or is not empty.

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    You probably want to 'trim' whitespaces, just like in : stackoverflow.com/questions/26797739/… Commented May 30, 2016 at 20:15
  • Trim removes spaces and line-breaks from beginning and end of string. That´s what you are looking for ? Take a look at: Does swift has trim method on String?. Commented May 30, 2016 at 20:16
  • @Pieter21 That works fine, thanks! Commented May 30, 2016 at 20:21

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Just check if the trimmed string is empty

let isEmpty = str.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(.whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet()).isEmpty

You can even put it in an String extension:

extension String { var isReallyEmpty: Bool { return self.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(.whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet()).isEmpty } }

It even works for a string like var str = " ​ " (that has spaces, tabs and zero-width spaces).

Then simply check textField.text?.isReallyEmpty ?? true.

If you wanna go even further (I wouldn't) add it to an UITextField extension:

extension UITextField { var isReallyEmpty: Bool { return text?.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(.whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet()).isEmpty ?? true } }

Your code becomes textField.isReallyEmpty.

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6

In Swift 4,

extension String { var isReallyEmpty: Bool { return self.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespaces).isEmpty } }
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I used this from @Pieter21 's link. It works for as many blank spaces a user could enter.

let myString = TextField.text let trimmedString = myString!.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet( NSCharacterSet.whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet() ) if trimmedString != "" { // Code if not empty } else { // Code if empty }
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