Using UISearchController to search a UITableView in a different View Controller - ios

Question

I'm trying to implement a UISearchController to reference and search for items in a UITableView from another View Controller. In other words, I'd like to have search bar in VC1 to search for items in the UITableView of VC2.
The reason I'm doing this is because I'd like to have search functionality right when my app opens, i.e. in VC1 instead of having to go VC1->V2 to search for items in VC2.
I have already created some simple code to search for items in the UITableView of VC1, but how can I reference the UITableView of VC2 instead?
Here's my sample code for UISearchController implementation:
let tableData = ["One","Two","Three","Twenty-One"]
var filteredTableData = [String]()
var resultSearchController = UISearchController()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.resultSearchController = ({
let controller = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
controller.searchResultsUpdater = self
controller.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
controller.searchBar.sizeToFit()
self.tableView.tableHeaderView = controller.searchBar
return controller
})()
// Reload the table
self.tableView.reloadData()
}
override func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
return 1
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
if (self.resultSearchController.active && self.resultSearchController.searchBar.text != "") {
return self.filteredTableData.count
}
else {
return self.tableData.count
}
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("Cell", forIndexPath: indexPath) as! UITableViewCell
if (self.resultSearchController.active && self.resultSearchController.searchBar.text != "") {
filteredTableData = tableData
cell.textLabel?.text = filteredTableData[indexPath.row]
return cell
}
else {
cell.textLabel?.text = tableData[indexPath.row]
return cell
}
}
func updateSearchResultsForSearchController(searchController: UISearchController)
{
filteredTableData.removeAll(keepCapacity: false)
let searchPredicate = NSPredicate(format: "SELF CONTAINS[c] %#", searchController.searchBar.text!)
let array = (tableData as NSArray).filteredArrayUsingPredicate(searchPredicate)
filteredTableData = array as! [String]
self.tableView.reloadData()
}
FYI: Both my VC1 and VC2 are connected via a UINavigationController
Thanks!