ios - UISearchDisplayDelegate doesn't search when search text is empty

Question

I have a table view with a search bar, I want to search when the text is empty.

I want to display all the data, when the search text is empty (when the user doesn't type any search text)

Note - Things work fine, when the search text is entered, the problem is ONLY when the search text is empty

Unfortunately the contents of self.arForSearch array is not used when the search text is empty.

I even tried replacing the text with "p" and yet the data is not loaded.

Question How can I display all the data, when the search string is not typed by the user ?

Code is pasted below:

- (BOOL)searchDisplayController:(UISearchDisplayController *)controller shouldReloadTableForSearchString:(NSString *)searchString
{
    if(searchString.length == 0)
    {
        searchString = @"p";
        NSLog(@"string was empty but was replaced by p");
    }

    [self filterContentForSearchText:searchString];

    // Return YES to cause the search result table view to be reloaded.
    return YES;
}

- (void)filterContentForSearchText:(NSString*)str{
    // for inCaseSensitive search
    str = [str uppercaseString];

    NSMutableArray *ar=[NSMutableArray array];
    for (NSDictionary *d in self.arForTable) {
        NSString *strOriginal = [d valueForKey:@"name"];
        // for inCaseSensitive search
        strOriginal = [strOriginal uppercaseString];

        if([strOriginal hasPrefix:str]) {
            [ar addObject:d];
        }
    }
    self.arForSearch=[NSArray arrayWithArray:ar];

    NSLog(@"self.arForSearch.count = %i", self.arForSearch.count);
}

Answer 1

- (void)filterContentForSearchText:(NSString*)str{
// for inCaseSensitive search
str = [str uppercaseString];

if([str isEqualToString:@""] || str == nil)
{
     self.arForSearch=[NSArray arrayWithArray:self.arForTable];
}
else
{
    NSMutableArray *ar=[NSMutableArray array];
    for (NSDictionary *d in self.arForTable) {
         NSString *strOriginal = [d valueForKey:@"name"];
        // for inCaseSensitive search
        strOriginal = [strOriginal uppercaseString];

        if([strOriginal hasPrefix:str]) {
            [ar addObject:d];
        }
    }
    self.arForSearch=[NSArray arrayWithArray:ar];
}
NSLog(@"self.arForSearch.count = %i", self.arForSearch.count);

//updated code
[yourTable reloadData];

}

Just check for empty string and add all the elements from the self.arForTable to self.arForSearch.

Hope this helps...

updated.... then you might need to add the line [yourTable reloadData]; at the end which would refresh the table data

Answer 2

I have written the following code in order to display the results when the search bar gets the focus and when it has no text.

NOTE: In my app, the search bar placeholder is equal to the last inserted search text, so you may need to adapt the code below.

//auxiliar function to force display of search results
-(void)forceDisplaySuggestionsForText:(NSString*)searchString {
    UISearchDisplayController *sdc = self.searchDisplayController;
    SEL sel = @selector(searchBar:textDidChange:);
    if([sdc respondsToSelector:sel]){
        UISearchBar *sb = sdc.searchBar;
        [sdc performSelector:sel withObject:sb withObject:searchString];
    }
}

- (void) searchDisplayControllerWillBeginSearch:(UISearchDisplayController *)controller {
    controller.searchBar.text = controller.searchBar.placeholder;
    //this will force initial display of the search results
    [self performSelector:@selector(forceDisplaySuggestionsForText:) withObject:controller.searchBar.text afterDelay:0];
}

- (void)filterContentForSearchText:(NSString*)str {
    //this will force display of results when there is no text in search bar
    if([str length] == 0){
        [self performSelector:@selector(forceDisplaySuggestionsForText:) withObject:@" " afterDelay:0];
    }
    //the rest of the code for content filtering
    ...
}