Question

Does NSArray have the capability of matching a string in an array with the closest representation of that string in another array?

For example:

NSString *search = @"apple p"; 
NSArray *array = [[NSArray alloc]initWithObjects:@"apple",@"apple pie",@"apple pies", @"apple juice", nil];

//Now we want to look for a similar string
[array ?];

The desired result should be: apple pie (most similar string). Any ideas how this could be done?

Answer 1

You could sort the array based on similarity, then retrieve the last element in the sorted array: the most similar string. Assuming you’ve defined some method similarityTo: in a category on NSString, something like the following should do the trick:

NSInteger compareStrings(id a, id b, void *context) {
  int aSimilarity = [a similarityTo:(NSString *)context];
  int bSimilarity = [b similarityTo:(NSString *)context];
  return aSimilarity - bSimilarity;
}

// Retrieving the most similar string.
NSString *result = [[array sortedArrayUsingFunction:compareStrings
                                            context:search] lastObject];