Question

I have a tableview that filters based on a search bar. This works well as long as the search begins with the same characters as the cell text.

I would like to be able to search any part of the cell text, even in the middle. For example. If the cell text is “Jon Bon Jovi” I would like it to still come up if the user types “Bon Jovi” or even just “Jovi” into the search bar.

My current code is below:

for (NSDictionary *item in listItems)
{

    if ([scope isEqualToString:@"All"] || [[item objectForKey:@"type"]  
    isEqualToString:scope] || scope == nil)
    {
        NSComparisonResult result = [[item objectForKey:@"name"] 
        compare:searchText options:(NSCaseInsensitiveSearch|NSDiacriticInsensitiveSearch) 
        range:NSMakeRange(0, [searchText length])];

        if (result == NSOrderedSame)
        {
            [filteredListItems addObject:item];
        }
    }
}

Any help would be awesome. Thank you all!

Answer 1

Instead of using -compare:options:range: (which just sorts your search string relative to your item’s name), consider looking at -rangeOfString:options: – that will actually search the entire item name for your search string. You would replace the inner body of your if statement with something like:

NSStringCompareOptions opts = (NSCaseInsensitiveSearch|NSDiacriticInsensitiveSearch);
NSRange resultRange = [[item objectForKey:@"name"] rangeOfString:searchText
                                                         options:opts];
if (resultRange.location != NSNotFound) {
    [filteredListItems addObject:item];
}