extension String {
var length: Int { return countElements(self) } // Swift 1.1
}
extension String {
var length: Int { return count(self) } // Swift 1.2
}
let globe = "" // U+1F30D EARTH GLOBE EUROPE-AFRICA
count(globe) // -> 1
// The equivalent of NSString.length is counting the elements in the string's UTF-16 representation
count(globe.utf16) // -> 2
Ref: