斯威夫特5.1

这可能是所有答案中最简单的一个。

添加这个扩展:

extension String {
    func retrieveFirstCharacter() -> String? {
        guard self.count > 0 else { return nil }
        let numberOfCharacters = self.count
        return String(self.dropLast(numberOfCharacters - 1))
    }
}

斯威夫特3:

extension String {
    func substring(fromPosition: UInt, toPosition: UInt) -> String? {
        guard fromPosition <= toPosition else {
            return nil
        }

        guard toPosition < UInt(characters.count) else {
            return nil
        }

        let start = index(startIndex, offsetBy: String.IndexDistance(fromPosition))
        let end   = index(startIndex, offsetBy: String.IndexDistance(toPosition) + 1)
        let range = start..<end

        return substring(with: range)
    }
}

"ffaabbcc".substring(fromPosition: 2, toPosition: 5) // return "aabb"

斯威夫特5.2

let str = "abcdef"
str[1 ..< 3] // returns "bc"
str[5] // returns "f"
str[80] // returns ""
str.substring(fromIndex: 3) // returns "def"
str.substring(toIndex: str.length - 2) // returns "abcd"

你需要将这个String扩展添加到你的项目中(它已经完全测试过了):

extension String {

    var length: Int {
        return count
    }

    subscript (i: Int) -> String {
        return self[i ..< i + 1]
    }

    func substring(fromIndex: Int) -> String {
        return self[min(fromIndex, length) ..< length]
    }

    func substring(toIndex: Int) -> String {
        return self[0 ..< max(0, toIndex)]
    }

    subscript (r: Range<Int>) -> String {
        let range = Range(uncheckedBounds: (lower: max(0, min(length, r.lowerBound)),
                                            upper: min(length, max(0, r.upperBound))))
        let start = index(startIndex, offsetBy: range.lowerBound)
        let end = index(start, offsetBy: range.upperBound - range.lowerBound)
        return String(self[start ..< end])
    }
}

尽管Swift总是有开箱即用的解决方案来解决这个问题(没有字符串扩展，我在下面提供)，我仍然强烈建议使用扩展。为什么?因为它为我从早期版本的Swift中节省了数十个小时的痛苦迁移，在早期版本中，String的语法几乎每次发布都要更改，但我所需要做的只是更新扩展的实现，而不是重构整个项目。做出你的选择。

let str = "Hello, world!"
let index = str.index(str.startIndex, offsetBy: 4)
str[index] // returns Character 'o'

let endIndex = str.index(str.endIndex, offsetBy:-2)
str[index ..< endIndex] // returns String "o, worl"

String(str.suffix(from: index)) // returns String "o, world!"
String(str.prefix(upTo: index)) // returns String "Hell"

对我来说最有效的方法是:

var firstName = "Olivia"
var lastName = "Pope"

var nameInitials.text = "\(firstName.prefix(1))" + "\    (lastName.prefix(1))"

输出:“OP”

看第一个字母:

first(str) // retrieve first letter

更多: http://sketchytech.blogspot.com/2014/08/swift-pure-swift-method-for-returning.html

Swift 4.2或更高版本

使用String的indexes属性进行范围和部分范围下标

作为@LeoDabus nice answer的变体，我们可以为DefaultIndices添加一个额外的扩展，目的是允许我们在为后者实现自定义下标(通过Int专用范围和部分范围)时使用String的indexes属性。

extension DefaultIndices {
    subscript(at: Int) -> Elements.Index { index(startIndex, offsetBy: at) }
}

// Moving the index(_:offsetBy:) to an extension yields slightly
// briefer implementations for these String extensions.
extension String {
    subscript(range: Range<Int>) -> SubSequence {
        let start = indices[range.lowerBound]
        return self[start..<indices[start...][range.count]]
    }
    subscript(range: ClosedRange<Int>) -> SubSequence {
        let start = indices[range.lowerBound]
        return self[start...indices[start...][range.count]]
    }
    subscript(range: PartialRangeFrom<Int>) -> SubSequence {
        self[indices[range.lowerBound]...]
    }
    subscript(range: PartialRangeThrough<Int>) -> SubSequence {
        self[...indices[range.upperBound]]
    }
    subscript(range: PartialRangeUpTo<Int>) -> SubSequence {
        self[..<indices[range.upperBound]]
    }
}

let str = "foo bar baz bax"
print(str[4..<6]) // "ba"
print(str[4...6]) // "bar"
print(str[4...])  // "bar baz bax"
print(str[...6])  // "foo bar"
print(str[..<6])  // "foo ba"

感谢@LeoDabus指出我在使用索引属性作为字符串下标的(其他)替代方案的方向!