String没有实现RandomAccessIndexType。可能是因为它们启用了具有不同字节长度的字符。这就是为什么我们必须使用string.characters.count（count或countElements在 Swift 1.x 中）来获取字符数的原因。这也适用于职位。这_position可能是原始字节数组的索引，他们不想公开它。这String.Index旨在保护我们不访问字符中间的字节。

这意味着您获得的任何索引都必须从String.startIndexor String.endIndex( String.Indeximplements BidirectionalIndexType) 创建。可以使用successororpredecessor方法创建任何其他索引。

现在为了帮助我们处理索引，有一组方法（Swift 1.x 中的函数）：

Swift4.x

let text = "abc"
let index2 = text.index(text.startIndex, offsetBy: 2) //will call succ 2 times
let lastChar: Character = text[index2] //now we can index!

let characterIndex2 = text.index(text.startIndex, offsetBy: 2)
let lastChar2 = text[characterIndex2] //will do the same as above

let range: Range<String.Index> = text.range(of: "b")!
let index: Int = text.distance(from: text.startIndex, to: range.lowerBound)

Swift3.0

let text = "abc"
let index2 = text.index(text.startIndex, offsetBy: 2) //will call succ 2 times
let lastChar: Character = text[index2] //now we can index!

let characterIndex2 = text.characters.index(text.characters.startIndex, offsetBy: 2)
let lastChar2 = text.characters[characterIndex2] //will do the same as above

let range: Range<String.Index> = text.range(of: "b")!
let index: Int = text.distance(from: text.startIndex, to: range.lowerBound)

Swift 2.x

let text = "abc"
let index2 = text.startIndex.advancedBy(2) //will call succ 2 times
let lastChar: Character = text[index2] //now we can index!
let lastChar2 = text.characters[index2] //will do the same as above

let range: Range<String.Index> = text.rangeOfString("b")!
let index: Int = text.startIndex.distanceTo(range.startIndex) //will call successor/predecessor several times until the indices match

Swift 1.x

let text = "abc"
let index2 = advance(text.startIndex, 2) //will call succ 2 times
let lastChar: Character = text[index2] //now we can index!

let range = text.rangeOfString("b")
let index: Int = distance(text.startIndex, range.startIndex) //will call succ/pred several times

使用String.Index很麻烦，但使用包装器按整数索引是危险的，因为它隐藏了实际索引的低效率。

请注意，Swift 索引实现的问题是，为一个字符串创建的索引/范围不能可靠地用于不同的字符串，例如：

Swift 2.x

let text: String = "abc"
let text2: String = "🎾🏇🏈"

let range = text.rangeOfString("b")!

//can randomly return a bad substring or throw an exception
let substring: String = text2[range]

//the correct solution
let intIndex: Int = text.startIndex.distanceTo(range.startIndex)
let startIndex2 = text2.startIndex.advancedBy(intIndex)
let range2 = startIndex2...startIndex2

let substring: String = text2[range2]

Swift 1.x

let text: String = "abc"
let text2: String = "🎾🏇🏈"

let range = text.rangeOfString("b")

//can randomly return nil or a bad substring 
let substring: String = text2[range] 

//the correct solution
let intIndex: Int = distance(text.startIndex, range.startIndex)    
let startIndex2 = advance(text2.startIndex, intIndex)
let range2 = startIndex2...startIndex2

let substring: String = text2[range2]