Question

How would I filter through an array and return values that contain a certain part of a string? I have a text box where, for the sake of this example, a user puts in 25, and then hits a “Done” button.

Example:

Original Array {25-1002, 25-1005, 12-1003, 1000-0942, 1-1, 234-25}

I want it to return (after sorting through it and pulling the values I want):

New Array {25-1002, 25-1005}

Please note that in the original array, the last value of 234-25 has a 25 in it as well but is not pulled through. It needs to be the number on the first part of the hyphen.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Use the -filteredArrayUsingPredicate: method, like this:

NSString *searchText = [someField.text stringByAppendingString:@"-"];
newArray = [originalArray filteredArrayUsingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithBlock:^(NSString *value, NSDictionary *bindings){
    return ([value rangeOfString:searchText].location != NSNotFound)
}]];

Note that blocks (the ^{} thing) aren’t available pre-iOS 4, so you’ll have to use another of NSPredicate’s constructors if you’re targeting 3.x devices as well.