我认为获取第一个字符的快速答案可能是:

let firstCharacter = aString[aString.startIndex]

它的优雅和性能比:

let firstCharacter = Array(aString.characters).first

但. .如果你想操纵和做更多的操作与字符串，你可以考虑创建一个扩展..这是一个扩展与这种方法，它非常类似于已经在这里张贴:

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

subscript(integerIndex: Int) -> Character {
    let index = startIndex.advancedBy(integerIndex)
    return self[index]
}

subscript(integerRange: Range<Int>) -> String {
    let start = startIndex.advancedBy(integerRange.startIndex)
    let end = startIndex.advancedBy(integerRange.endIndex)
    let range = start..<end
    return self[range]
}

}

但这是个糟糕的主意!!

下面的扩展是非常低效的。每次使用整数访问字符串时，都会运行一个O(n)函数来提高其起始索引。在另一个线性循环中运行一个线性循环意味着这个for循环意外地是O(n2)——随着字符串长度的增加，这个循环所花费的时间呈二次方增加。

而不是这样做，你可以使用字符的字符串集合。

我也有同样的问题。简单地这样做:

var aString: String = "test"
var aChar:unichar = (aString as NSString).characterAtIndex(0)

你可以通过将字符串转换为数组，并通过下标获得特定的索引，如下所示

var str = "Hello"
let s = Array(str)[2]
print(s)

我刚想出了一个巧妙的变通办法

var firstChar = Array(string)[0]

Swift 2.2解决方案:

下面的扩展在Xcode 7中工作，这是这个解决方案和Swift 2.0语法转换的组合。

extension String {
    subscript(integerIndex: Int) -> Character {
        let index = startIndex.advancedBy(integerIndex)
        return self[index]
    }

    subscript(integerRange: Range<Int>) -> String {
        let start = startIndex.advancedBy(integerRange.startIndex)
        let end = startIndex.advancedBy(integerRange.endIndex)
        let range = start..<end
        return self[range]
    }
}

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