Using String[Range<String.Index>] subscript you can get the sub string. You need starting index and last index to create the range and you can do it as below

let str = "abcde"
if let range = str.range(of: "cd") {
  let substring = str[..<range.lowerBound] // or str[str.startIndex..<range.lowerBound]
  print(substring)  // Prints ab
}
else {
  print("String not present")
}

If you don't define the start index this operator ..< , it take the starting index. You can also use str[str.startIndex..<range.lowerBound] instead of str[..<range.lowerBound]

Swift 5

Find index of substring

let str = "abcdecd"
if let range: Range<String.Index> = str.range(of: "cd") {
    let index: Int = str.distance(from: str.startIndex, to: range.lowerBound)
    print("index: ", index) //index: 2
}
else {
    print("substring not found")
}

Find index of Character

let str = "abcdecd"
if let firstIndex = str.firstIndex(of: "c") {
    let index = str.distance(from: str.startIndex, to: firstIndex)
    print("index: ", index)   //index: 2
}
else {
    print("symbol not found")
}

In Swift 4 :

Getting Index of a character in a string :

let str = "abcdefghabcd"
if let index = str.index(of: "b") {
   print(index) // Index(_compoundOffset: 4, _cache: Swift.String.Index._Cache.character(1))
}

Creating SubString (prefix and suffix) from String using Swift 4:

let str : String = "ilike"
for i in 0...str.count {
    let index = str.index(str.startIndex, offsetBy: i) // String.Index
    let prefix = str[..<index] // String.SubSequence
    let suffix = str[index...] // String.SubSequence
    print("prefix \(prefix), suffix : \(suffix)")
}

Output

prefix , suffix : ilike
prefix i, suffix : like
prefix il, suffix : ike
prefix ili, suffix : ke
prefix ilik, suffix : e
prefix ilike, suffix : 

If you want to generate a substring between 2 indices , use :

let substring1 = string[startIndex...endIndex] // including endIndex
let subString2 = string[startIndex..<endIndex] // excluding endIndex

Doing this in Swift is possible but it takes more lines, here is a function indexOf() doing what is expected:

func indexOf(source: String, substring: String) -> Int? {
    let maxIndex = source.characters.count - substring.characters.count
    for index in 0...maxIndex {
        let rangeSubstring = source.startIndex.advancedBy(index)..<source.startIndex.advancedBy(index + substring.characters.count)
        if source.substringWithRange(rangeSubstring) == substring {
            return index
        }
    }
    return nil
}

var str = "abcde"
if let indexOfCD = indexOf(str, substring: "cd") {
    let distance = str.startIndex.advancedBy(indexOfCD)
    print(str.substringToIndex(distance)) // Returns "ab"
}

This function is not optimized but it does the job for short strings.

Swift 5

   let alphabet = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"

    var index: Int = 0
    
    if let range: Range<String.Index> = alphabet.range(of: "c") {
         index = alphabet.distance(from: alphabet.startIndex, to: range.lowerBound)
        print("index: ", index) //index: 2
    }

There are three closely connected issues here:

• All the substring-finding methods are over in the Cocoa NSString world (Foundation)

• Foundation NSRange has a mismatch with Swift Range; the former uses start and length, the latter uses endpoints

• In general, Swift characters are indexed using String.Index, not Int, but Foundation characters are indexed using Int, and there is no simple direct translation between them (because Foundation and Swift have different ideas of what constitutes a character)

Given all that, let's think about how to write:

func substring(of s: String, from:Int, toSubstring s2 : String) -> Substring? {
    // ?
}

The substring s2 must be sought in s using a String Foundation method. The resulting range comes back to us, not as an NSRange (even though this is a Foundation method), but as a Range of String.Index (wrapped in an Optional, in case we didn't find the substring at all). However, the other number, from, is an Int. Thus we cannot form any kind of range involving them both.

But we don't have to! All we have to do is slice off the end of our original string using a method that takes a String.Index, and slice off the start of our original string using a method that takes an Int. Fortunately, such methods exist! Like this:

func substring(of s: String, from:Int, toSubstring s2 : String) -> Substring? {
    guard let r = s.range(of:s2) else {return nil}
    var s = s.prefix(upTo:r.lowerBound)
    s = s.dropFirst(from)
    return s
}

Or, if you prefer to be able to apply this method directly to a string, like this...

let output = "abcde".substring(from:0, toSubstring:"cd")

...then make it an extension on String:

extension String {
    func substring(from:Int, toSubstring s2 : String) -> Substring? {
        guard let r = self.range(of:s2) else {return nil}
        var s = self.prefix(upTo:r.lowerBound)
        s = s.dropFirst(from)
        return s
    }
}

Swift 5

    extension String {
    enum SearchDirection {
        case first, last
    }
    func characterIndex(of character: Character, direction: String.SearchDirection) -> Int? {
        let fn = direction == .first ? firstIndex : lastIndex
        if let stringIndex: String.Index = fn(character) {
            let index: Int = distance(from: startIndex, to: stringIndex)
            return index
        }  else {
            return nil
        }
    }
}

tests:

 func testFirstIndex() {
        let res = ".".characterIndex(of: ".", direction: .first)
        XCTAssert(res == 0)
    }
    func testFirstIndex1() {
        let res = "12345678900.".characterIndex(of: "0", direction: .first)
        XCTAssert(res == 9)
    }
    func testFirstIndex2() {
        let res = ".".characterIndex(of: ".", direction: .last)
        XCTAssert(res == 0)
    }
    func testFirstIndex3() {
        let res = "12345678900.".characterIndex(of: "0", direction: .last)
        XCTAssert(res == 10)
    }

In the Swift version 3, String doesn't have functions like -

str.index(of: String)

If the index is required for a substring, one of the ways to is to get the range. We have the following functions in the string which returns range -

str.range(of: <String>)
str.rangeOfCharacter(from: <CharacterSet>)
str.range(of: <String>, options: <String.CompareOptions>, range: <Range<String.Index>?>, locale: <Locale?>)

For example to find the indexes of first occurrence of play in str

var str = "play play play"
var range = str.range(of: "play")
range?.lowerBound //Result : 0
range?.upperBound //Result : 4

Note : range is an optional. If it is not able to find the String it will make it nil. For example

var str = "play play play"
var range = str.range(of: "zoo") //Result : nil
range?.lowerBound //Result : nil
range?.upperBound //Result : nil

Leo Dabus's answer is great. Here is my answer based on his answer using compactMap to avoid Index out of range error.

Swift 5.1

extension StringProtocol {
    func ranges(of targetString: Self, options: String.CompareOptions = [], locale: Locale? = nil) -> [Range<String.Index>] {

        let result: [Range<String.Index>] = self.indices.compactMap { startIndex in
            let targetStringEndIndex = index(startIndex, offsetBy: targetString.count, limitedBy: endIndex) ?? endIndex
            return range(of: targetString, options: options, range: startIndex..<targetStringEndIndex, locale: locale)
        }
        return result
    }
}

// Usage
let str = "Hello, playground, playground, playground"
let ranges = str.ranges(of: "play")
ranges.forEach {
    print("[\($0.lowerBound.utf16Offset(in: str)), \($0.upperBound.utf16Offset(in: str))]")
}

// result - [7, 11], [19, 23], [31, 35]

Have you considered using NSRange?

if let range = mainString.range(of: mySubString) {
  //...
}