NSPredicate to handle NIL string as ANY character - ios

Question

I have an NSPredicate looks like that:
NSPredicate *predicateSearch;
if ([category_array count]>0 && [location_array count]>0) {
predicateSearch =[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"category_id IN %# AND location_id IN %# AND company_title CONTAINS %#",category_array,location_array,searchStr];
}
else if ([category_array count]>0){
predicateSearch =[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"category_id IN %# AND company_title CONTAINS %#",category_array,searchStr];
}
else if([location_array count]>0){
predicateSearch = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"location_id IN %# AND company_title CONTAINS %#",location_array,searchStr];
}
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicateSearch];
Since NSPredicate is not able to handle Nil values I am using this If-Statement to format the Predicate and handle the Nilvalue as 'ANY'.
The issue here is that I want also the searchStr to be handled as 'ANY' if it's Nil.
I tried to set it as empty string in case of Nil but it won't work.
Is there any way to accomplish that without using any If-statements for each case(9 if-statements it's too much)?

Answer 1

Use compound predicates. Example, based on what you posted:
NSPredicate *categoryPredicate = (category_array.count > 0)
? [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"category_id IN %#", category_array]
: [NSPredicate predicateWithValue:YES];
NSPredicate *locationPredicate = (category_array.count > 0)
? [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"location_id IN %#", location_array]
: [NSPredicate predicateWithValue:YES];
NSPredicate *searchPredicate = (searchStr.length > 0)
? [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"company_title CONTAINS %#", searchStr]
: [NSPredicate predicateWithValue:YES];
NSCompoundPredicate *predicate =
[NSCompoundPredicate
andPredicateWithSubpredicates:#[
categoryPredicate,
locationPredicate,
searchPredicate,
]
];