你可以使用SwiftString (https://github.com/amayne/SwiftString)来做这件事。

"Hello, world!"[0] // H
"Hello, world!"[0...4] // Hello

免责声明:我写了这个扩展

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)!

Swift 3:另一个解决方案(在操场测试)

extension String {
    func substr(_ start:Int, length:Int=0) -> String? {
        guard start > -1 else {
            return nil
        }

        let count = self.characters.count - 1

        guard start <= count else {
            return nil
        }

        let startOffset = max(0, start)
        let endOffset = length > 0 ? min(count, startOffset + length - 1) : count

        return self[self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: startOffset)...self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: endOffset)]
    }
}

用法:

let txt = "12345"

txt.substr(-1) //nil
txt.substr(0) //"12345"
txt.substr(0, length: 0) //"12345"
txt.substr(1) //"2345"
txt.substr(2) //"345"
txt.substr(3) //"45"
txt.substr(4) //"5"
txt.substr(6) //nil
txt.substr(0, length: 1) //"1"
txt.substr(1, length: 1) //"2"
txt.substr(2, length: 1) //"3"
txt.substr(3, length: 1) //"4"
txt.substr(3, length: 2) //"45"
txt.substr(3, length: 3) //"45"
txt.substr(4, length: 1) //"5"
txt.substr(4, length: 2) //"5"
txt.substr(5, length: 1) //nil
txt.substr(5, length: -1) //nil
txt.substr(-1, length: -1) //nil

在Swift 3中，没有对String类的扩展，就像我能做的那样简单!

let myString = "abcedfg"
let characterLocationIndex = myString.index(myString.startIndex, offsetBy: 3)
let myCharacter = myString[characterLocationIndex]

本例中的myCharacter为“3”。

允许负指数

它总是有用的，不必总是写string[string]。长度- 1]用于在使用下标扩展名时获取最后一个字符。这(Swift 3)扩展允许负索引，范围和CountableClosedRange。

extension String {
    var count: Int { return self.characters.count }

    subscript (i: Int) -> Character {
        // wraps out of bounds indices
        let j = i % self.count
        // wraps negative indices
        let x = j < 0 ? j + self.count : j

        // quick exit for first
        guard x != 0 else {
            return self.characters.first!
        }

        // quick exit for last
        guard x != count - 1 else {
            return self.characters.last!
        }

        return self[self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: x)]
    }

    subscript (r: Range<Int>) -> String {
        let lb = r.lowerBound
        let ub = r.upperBound

        // quick exit for one character
        guard lb != ub else { return String(self[lb]) }

        return self[self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: lb)..<self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: ub)]
    }

    subscript (r: CountableClosedRange<Int>) -> String {
        return self[r.lowerBound..<r.upperBound + 1]
    }
}

如何使用:

var text = "Hello World"

text[-1]    // d
text[2]     // l
text[12]    // e
text[0...4] // Hello
text[0..<4] // Hell

对于更彻底的程序员:在这个扩展中包括一个防止空字符串的保护

subscript (i: Int) -> Character {
    guard self.count != 0 else { return '' }
    ...
}

subscript (r: Range<Int>) -> String {
    guard self.count != 0 else { return "" }
    ...
}

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))
    }
}