How to do searching in NSTableView with NSSearchField?

Question

I have implemented a application in which I use NSTableview with the help of its data source and delegates I have not used NSArrayController nor I want to use it. My question is how can I bind NSSearchField with my NSTableView in this situation? I had seen a lot of answer using NSArrayController. I do not want to convert implementation to NSArrayController as things are working good with NSMutableArray.

Answer 1

TableView is a display control and is not for filtering. You should add 2 NSArray properties;
1) @property(nonatomic, strong) NSArray *allItems;
2) @property(nonatomic, strong) NSArray *filteredItems;

#import "ViewController.h"

@interface ViewController()<NSSearchFieldDelegate, NSTableViewDelegate, NSTableViewDataSource>

// Your NSSearchField
@property (weak) IBOutlet NSSearchField *searchField;

// Your NSTableView
@property (weak) IBOutlet NSTableView *tableView;

// In this array you will store all items
@property(nonatomic, strong) NSArray *allItems;

// In this array you will store only filtered items
@property(nonatomic, strong) NSArray *filteredItems;

@end

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    self.searchField.delegate = self;// You can set delegate from XIB/Storyboard
    self.tableView.delegate = self;// You can set delegate from XIB/Storyboard
    self.tableView.dataSource = self;// You can set dataSource from XIB/Storyboard

    self.allItems = @[@"Test1", @"Demo filter", @"Test 2", @"Abracadabra"];
    [self applyFilterWithString:@""];
}

- (void)controlTextDidChange:(NSNotification *)obj{

    if (obj.object == self.searchField) {
        [self applyFilterWithString:self.searchField.stringValue];
    }
}

-(void)applyFilterWithString:(NSString*)filter {

    if (filter.length>0) {
        NSPredicate *filterPredicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self CONTAINS[cd] %@", filter];
        self.filteredItems = [self.allItems filteredArrayUsingPredicate:filterPredicate];
    }
    else {
        self.filteredItems = self.allItems.copy;
    }
    [self.tableView reloadData];
}

#pragma mark - ***** NSTableViewDataSource, NSTableViewDelegate *****

- (NSInteger)numberOfRowsInTableView:(NSTableView *)tableView {
    return self.filteredItems.count;
}


// for the "Cell Based" TableView
- (nullable id)tableView:(NSTableView *)tableView objectValueForTableColumn:(nullable NSTableColumn *)tableColumn row:(NSInteger)row {

    NSString *item = self.filteredItems[row];
    return item;
}

@end