How to check a string is spelled correctly using UITextChecker

Swift version: 5.10

Paul Hudson @twostraws May 28th 2019

You can draw on the iOS dictionary in just a few lines of code thanks to the UITextChecker class. Tell it the range of the string you want to check (this could be the whole string or just part of it), then ask it to tell you where the spelling error is. If it says there are no errors, the word is good. Here's the code:

func isReal(word: String) -> Bool {
    let checker = UITextChecker()
    let range = NSRange(location: 0, length: word.utf16.count)
    let misspelledRange = checker.rangeOfMisspelledWord(in: word, range: range, startingAt: 0, wrap: false, language: "en")

    return misspelledRange.location == NSNotFound
}

Note that rangeOfMisspelledWord(in:) accepts a language parameter, so you can change that as needed.