Strings
Why do we use the term “strings,” and where did this term originate? Think of pearls, beads, or the like strung on a cord—something sequential connected in a line or arranged in a series or succession.
In general computer science terms, a string is traditionally a sequence of characters. This sequence of characters can be stored as a variable. Strings are generally treated as data types and are often implemented as an array that stores the characters using a manner of character encoding. The term encoding here refers to converting a character to its internal code point representation. Encoding is covered in detail in an upcoming section of this chapter.
In Objective-C, the string class is NSString and is the basic tool for representing text within your application. The NSString class provides powerful and flexible methods for manipulating its contents, as well as searching. And to add to its coolness, this class has native Unicode support.