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))
    }
}

swift 2.0子字符串更新

public extension String {
    public subscript (i: Int) -> String {
        return self.substringWithRange(self.startIndex..<self.startIndex.advancedBy(i + 1))
    }

    public subscript (r: Range<Int>) -> String {
        get {
            return self.substringWithRange(self.startIndex.advancedBy(r.startIndex)..<self.startIndex.advancedBy(r.endIndex))
        }
    }

}

我的解决方法很简单:

斯威夫特4.1:

let myString = "Test string"
let index = 0
let firstCharacter = myString[String.Index(encodedOffset: index)]

斯威夫特5.1:

let firstCharacter = myString[String.Index.init(utf16Offset: index, in: myString)]

不使用整数进行索引，只使用String.Index。主要是线性复杂度。您还可以从String中创建范围。索引并使用它们获取子字符串。

斯威夫特3.0

let firstChar = someString[someString.startIndex]
let lastChar = someString[someString.index(before: someString.endIndex)]
let charAtIndex = someString[someString.index(someString.startIndex, offsetBy: 10)]

let range = someString.startIndex..<someString.index(someString.startIndex, offsetBy: 10)
let substring = someString[range]

快2.倍

let firstChar = someString[someString.startIndex]
let lastChar = someString[someString.endIndex.predecessor()]
let charAtIndex = someString[someString.startIndex.advanceBy(10)]

let range = someString.startIndex..<someString.startIndex.advanceBy(10)
let subtring = someString[range]

请注意，不能使用从一个字符串到另一个字符串创建的索引(或范围)

let index10 = someString.startIndex.advanceBy(10)

//will compile
//sometimes it will work but sometimes it will crash or result in undefined behaviour
let charFromAnotherString = anotherString[index10]

swift字符串类不提供在特定索引处获取字符的能力，因为它本身支持UTF字符。UTF字符在内存中的可变长度使得直接跳转到字符是不可能的。这意味着每次都必须手动遍历字符串。

您可以扩展String以提供一个方法，该方法将遍历字符，直到您需要的索引

extension String {
    func characterAtIndex(index: Int) -> Character? {
        var cur = 0
        for char in self {
            if cur == index {
                return char
            }
            cur++
        }
        return nil
    }
}

myString.characterAtIndex(0)!

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"