How to do searching in NSTableView with NSSearchField? - macos

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