VictorShurapov / UISearchControllerWithSwift

UISearchController and TableView with list of Countries

UISearchController

This is a small demonstration of the new UISearchController API.

Countries.swift

This file contains a public enum—Countries. Countries has one static constant—list—which is an array of most countries in the world.

To access the array of countries anywhere in the app, you use Countries.list.

For more information on case-less enums, have a look at this post on Natasha the Robot.

ViewController.swift

This class sets up a UISearchController called countrySearchController. The countrySearchController is configured during initialisation:

nil is passed as the argument in the method parameter as it has the effect of presenting the search results in the current view.

    var countrySearchController: UISearchController = (
        let controller = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
        controller.hidesNavigationBarDuringPresentation = false
        controller.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
        controller.searchBar.searchBarStyle = .Minimal
        controller.searchBar.sizeToFit()
        return controller
    })()

In viewDidLoad, countrySearchController.searchBar is set as the tableHeaderView and the countrySearchController.searchResultsUpdater is set to the current ViewController. The ViewController is responsible for updating the contents of search controller. This means that the ViewController must conform to the new UISearchResultsUpdating protocol.

There is no need to add a search bar in Interface Builder.

ViewController conforms to UISearchResultsUpdating.

When the updateSearchResultsForSearchController function is called:

• searchArray is cleared
• a new searchString is created based on the searchBar text, which takes the form of S*E*A*R*C*H*T*E*X*T*
• a search of countryArray is performed based on searchController.searchBar.text
• any matches are added to searchArray
• countryTable is reloaded

In cellForRowAtIndexPath, the countryTable is populated based on whether or not the searchController is active. If the searchController is active, the cell is configured by calling cell.configureCellWith(searchTerm: String, cellText: String).

SearchTableViewCell.swift

cell.configureCellWith(searchTerm:String, cellText: String) will configure the cell to highlight matched search terms using a basic regular expression.

---

An alternate setup is included that allows you to use a separate view controller to present search results:

A standalone tableViewController is created in Storyboard and then instantiated as part of the UISearchController setup.

let alternateController:AlternateTableViewController = storyBoard.instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("aTV") as! AlternateTableViewController let controller = UISearchController(searchResultsController: alternateController)

AlternateTableViewController subscribes to Notifications. When the user enters search a search term, the search results are updated and posted through Notification Center via a didSet:

var searchArray = [String]() {
    didSet {
        NotificationCenter.default.post(name: NSNotification.Name.init("searchResultsUpdated"), object: searchArray)
    }
}