IOS/Objective-C: Search string element with array of objects - ios

Question

As part of an autocomplete box, I am searching names within an array of contacts. However, after the user picks a name from the suggested List, I need to grab the id of the contact which is in the array of contact objects but not the array of names that appear in the suggest box. I've been working with just the names as that's what I want to display in the suggestion box but have an array of contacts as well.
How would I convert code below (probably using key values) to search the name dimensions of an array of objects instead of an array of names so as to keep track of the ids of the objects. I am kind of fuzzy on arrays and key values.
//the array being searched looks something like #[#"John", #"Dave", #"Sam", #"Xian", #"Ahmed", #"Johann"];
//I want to search the names in an array that looks something like:
(
{
first = "John";cid = 2;},
{
first = "Dave";cid = 44;},
{
first = "Xian";cid=99})
//this code works great to search names but I lose track ids. Thank you for any suggestions.
-(void)searchArray: (NSMutableArray*) array forString: (NSString *) term {
[_contactsSuggested removeAllObjects];
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"SELF contains[c] %#",term];
NSArray *tempArray = [array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:predicate];
_contactsSuggested = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:tempArray];
[_autocompleteTableView reloadData];
}

Answer 1

Create a Contact object. Give it a name property, an id property, and any other properties you need. Then write code that searches an array of Contact objects rather than just an array of names. You could then create a predicate using predicateWithBlock to filter the items that match your name property.