How to use Swift - Autocomplete in textView - ios

Question

I have a textView where user can add comments and mention to other users.
I've build a function which is triggered when the user type the sign "#".
So basically as in Instagram or Facebook when the user types "#" a tableview appears and show the user suggestions.
Here's my function:
func suggestUser() {
if let searchText = postTextField.text {
let words = searchText.components(separatedBy: .whitespacesAndNewlines)
for var word in words {
if word.hasPrefix("#") {
word = word.trimmingCharacters(in: .punctuationCharacters)
let userToSearch = String(word.dropFirst())
self.viewContainerForTableView.isHidden = false
self.suggestedUsers.removeAll()
self.tableView.reloadData()
Api.User.queryUsersByMentionName(WithText: userToSearch, completion: { (user) in
if !self.suggestedUsers.contains(where: { $0.id == user.id }) {
self.suggestedUsers.append(user)
}
self.tableView.reloadData()
})
} else {
self.viewContainerForTableView.isHidden = true
}
}
}
}
I have two issue:
1) When the user clicks on the suggested user in the tableview, how can i remove the text he already typed and add the one he selected?
Let me give you an example:
If a user types #jan in the tableView appears janedoe. When the user click on the suggested name in table view how can i remove jan and add janedoe?
Here's my code for the didSelectRowAt
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
let username = suggestedUsers[indexPath.row].username
let usernameToAppend = username.components(separatedBy: .whitespacesAndNewlines).joined()
postTextField.text.append("\(usernameToAppend)")
}
2) Is there a way to check if an user is already typed in the textView and so not displaying it in the tableview?
Thank you!

Answer 1

After an entire day of trying i Think I've found a solution... Hopefully...
so I have created an extension for my textView:
extension UITextView {
var currentWord : String? {
let beginning = beginningOfDocument
if let start = position(from: beginning, offset: selectedRange.location),
let end = position(from: start, offset: selectedRange.length) {
let textRange = tokenizer.rangeEnclosingPosition(end, with: .word, inDirection: 1)
if let textRange = textRange {
return text(in: textRange)
}
}
return nil
}
}
Then in my didSelectRowAt i have:
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
let username = suggestedUsers[indexPath.row].username
let usernameToAppend = username.components(separatedBy: .whitespacesAndNewlines).joined()
let currentWord = postTextField.currentWord
if currentWord != nil && currentWord != "#" {
if let countIndex = currentWord?.count {
let count = Int(countIndex)
let startPosition = postTextField.selectedTextRange?.start
let endPosition = postTextField.position(from: startPosition!, offset: -count)
postTextField.selectedTextRange = postTextField.textRange(from: startPosition!, to: endPosition!)
if let range = postTextField.selectedTextRange {
postTextField.replace(range, withText: usernameToAppend)
}
}
} else if currentWord == "#" {
if let range = postTextField.selectedTextRange {
if range.start == range.end {
postTextField.replace(range, withText: usernameToAppend)
}
}
}
}
}