How do I use the UISearchBar and UISearchDisplayController

Question

I have an app which displays quite a lot of data in a UITableView. I already added the UISearchBar and UISearchDisplayController in Interface Builder to the UITableView. But I do not know how to use it. If someone could provide a quick solution to this, I would be grateful. I just require it to work as you type to find matches of the search query in the UITableView cells (or from an array).

UPDATE 1: Here's the code from thenumberOfRowsInSection method:

-(NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section   {   if (isSearching) {           return [searchResults count];       }       else {           if (section == 0) {               return 1;           }           else if (section == 1) {               return [basicQuantities count];           }           else if (section == 2) {               return [physicalQuantities count];           }       }        return nil;   } 

Answer 1

• First add the UISearchDisplayController to your table view
• Then set its delegate.
• Implement the following methods.

Demo Project

In your .h File

    @interface ViewController : UIViewController <UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource> {      NSMutableArray *contentList;     NSMutableArray *filteredContentList;     BOOL isSearching; } @property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UITableView *tblContentList; @property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UISearchBar *searchBar; @property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UISearchDisplayController *searchBarController; 

In your .m File

Filling the sample data (Optional Only For Demo Purpose)

- (void)viewDidLoad {     [super viewDidLoad];     contentList = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"iPhone", @"iPod", @"iPod touch", @"iMac", @"Mac Pro", @"iBook",@"MacBook", @"MacBook Pro", @"PowerBook", nil];     filteredContentList = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; } 

Now implement the Table View Delegate and Datasource

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {      // Return the number of sections.     return 1; }  - (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {     // Return the number of rows in the section.     if (isSearching) {         return [filteredContentList count];     }     else {         return [contentList count];     } }  - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {     static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";      UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];     if (cell == nil) {         cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];     }      // Configure the cell...     if (isSearching) {         cell.textLabel.text = [filteredContentList objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];     }     else {         cell.textLabel.text = [contentList objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];     }     return cell;  } 

Search Function Responsible For Searching

- (void)searchTableList {     NSString *searchString = searchBar.text;      for (NSString *tempStr in contentList) {         NSComparisonResult result = [tempStr compare:searchString options:(NSCaseInsensitiveSearch|NSDiacriticInsensitiveSearch) range:NSMakeRange(0, [searchString length])];         if (result == NSOrderedSame) {             [filteredContentList addObject:tempStr];         }     } } 

Search Bar Implementation

- (void)searchBarTextDidBeginEditing:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {     isSearching = YES; }  - (void)searchBar:(UISearchBar *)searchBar textDidChange:(NSString *)searchText {     NSLog(@"Text change - %d",isSearching);      //Remove all objects first.     [filteredContentList removeAllObjects];      if([searchText length] != 0) {         isSearching = YES;         [self searchTableList];     }     else {         isSearching = NO;     }     // [self.tblContentList reloadData]; }  - (void)searchBarCancelButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {     NSLog(@"Cancel clicked"); }  - (void)searchBarSearchButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {     NSLog(@"Search Clicked");     [self searchTableList]; } 

Answer 2

Here is a good tutorial how to do that. It's too much to just write about it :)

http://www.appcoda.com/how-to-add-search-bar-uitableview/