Alternative of NSPredicate on iPhone SDK

Use following classes:


The SearchPredicate.h

//  SearchPredicate.h
//
//  Created by Yasir Ibrahim on 24/12/08.

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface SearchPredicate : NSObject {
 NSString* searchTerm;
}

@property (nonatomic, retain) NSString* searchTerm;

- (BOOL)evaluateWithObject:(id)object;

@end

And the SearchPredicate.m

//  SearchPredicate.m
//  Created by Yasir Ibrahim on 24/12/08.
#import "SearchPredicate.h"

@implementation SearchPredicate

@synthesize searchTerm;

- (BOOL)evaluateWithObject:(id)object
{
 searchTerm = [searchTerm stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];

 if([searchTerm compare:@"*"] == 0 || [searchTerm compare:@""] == 0)
 {
  return TRUE;
 }

 NSString* name = [object objectForKey:@"Name"];

 if([name length] >= [searchTerm length])
 {
  NSRange r;
  r.length = [searchTerm length];

  r.location = 0;

  if([name rangeOfString:searchTerm options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch range:r].location != NSNotFound)
  {
   return TRUE;
  }
  else
  {
   return FALSE;
  }
 }

 else
 {
  return FALSE;
 }
}
@end

And here is how to use it with UISearchBar:

- (void)searchBarSearchButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)searchBar
{
 [mySearchBar resignFirstResponder];

 SearchPredicate* sp = [[SearchPredicate alloc] init];

 sp.searchTerm = [mySearchBar text];
 [pickerItemFilteredList release];
 //pickerItemFilteredList =  [pickerItemList filteredArrayUsingPredicate:sp];
 pickerItemFilteredList = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

 for(int i=0; i<[pickerItemList count]; i++)
 {
  if([sp evaluateWithObject:[pickerItemList objectAtIndex:i]])
  {
   [pickerItemFilteredList addObject:[pickerItemList objectAtIndex:i]];
  }
 } 

 [pickerItemFilteredList retain];

 [myPickerView reloadComponent:0];

 if([pickerItemFilteredList count] == 1)
 {
  [self showStoreOnMapAtRow:0];
 }
}

Notice that I was using NSPredicate (sp) with filteredArrayUsingPredicate method of NSMuteableArray before. However as I have not implemented that method for our new class yet (you can do this, I guess using categories etc., and post back in comments) I have commented it and using a for loop and evaluateWithObject on each object of NSMuteableArray to have the same effect.