UISearchController retain issue - ios

Question

I am trying to use UISearchController however I confronted with retain issue that I can't solve. MainTableview has two sections.
Section 1
Filtered Data based on some Regex
Section 2
All Data
I added UISearchController to my tableview and attached ResultsTableController as resultsTableController. It works when user search something, ResultsTableController comes forward and because I set tableview delegate to self, selecting item from ResultsTableController calls didSelectRowAtIndexPath in my MainTableViewController. However I have allocation issue if user selects something from resultsTableController.
Following happens for different scenarios
User doesn't search anything, just selects an item from
MainTableview, I see deinit messages
User searches something, cancel the search, select item from
MainTableview, I see deinit messages
User searches something, and selects an item from
ResultsTableController, I don't get deinit in my viewcontrollers
MainTableViewController.swift
var searchController: UISearchController!
// Secondary search results table view.
var resultsTableController: ResultsTableController!
var allCompanies = ["Data1","Data2","Data3"]
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
resultsTableController = ResultsTableController()
// We want to be the delegate for our filtered table so didSelectRowAtIndexPath(_:) is called for both tables.
resultsTableController.tableView.delegate = self
searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: resultsTableController)
searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self
searchController.searchBar.sizeToFit()
tableView.tableHeaderView = searchController.searchBar
searchController.delegate = self
searchController.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
searchController.searchBar.delegate = self
definesPresentationContext = true
}
}
// MARK: UISearchBarDelegate
func searchBarSearchButtonClicked(searchBar: UISearchBar) {
searchBar.resignFirstResponder()
}
// MARK: UISearchResultsUpdating
func updateSearchResultsForSearchController(searchController: UISearchController) {
// Update the filtered array based on the search text.
let filteredResults = allCompanies.filter({ company in
(company.lowercaseString as NSString).containsString(searchController.searchBar.text.lowercaseString)
})
// Hand over the filtered results to our search results table.
let resultsController = searchController.searchResultsController as! ResultsTableController
resultsController.searchResult = filteredResults
resultsController.tableView.reloadData()
}
// usual tableview methods
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
if resultsTableController.searchResult.count > 0 {
selectedCompany = resultsTableController.searchResult[index]
//do something with selected company
navigationController?.popViewControllerAnimated(true)
return
}
//
selectedCompany = allCompanies[index]
navigationController?.popViewControllerAnimated(true)
}
deinit {
println("MainTableView deinit")
}
ResultTableController.swift
class ResultsTableController:UITableViewController {
var searchResult = [String]()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
tableView.registerClass(UITableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "cell")
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return searchResult.count
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("cell", forIndexPath: indexPath) as! UITableViewCell
let index = indexPath.row
cell.textLabel?.font = UIFont(name: "Avenir-Roman", size: 16)
cell.textLabel?.text = searchResult[index].description
return cell
}
deinit {
println("ResultTableController deinit")
}
}

Answer 1

Hey there I ran into the issue today
apparently I need to force the dismiss of the searchController to work around the retain issue
override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {
super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
searchController?.dismissViewControllerAnimated(false, completion: nil)
}
here is my sample project
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zzs0m4n9maxd2u5/TestSearch.zip?dl=0

Answer 2

The solution does seem to be to call dismissViewControllerAnimated on the UISearchController at some point. Most people probably don't do that since the UISearchController is somewhat of an implementation detail related to your view controller that is hosting the UISearchController.
My solution, which seems to work no matter how you present your search UI (standard present or in a popover) is to call searchController.dismissViewControllerAnimated() from your host's viewDidDisappear, after checking to see if the view controller is no longer being presented. This catches all cases, especially the popover case where the user taps outside the popover to automatically dismiss the UI, or the case where the search UI is disappearing simply because you pushed something else onto the navigation stack. In the latter case, you don't want to dismiss the UISearchController.
override func viewDidDisappear(animated: Bool)
{
super.viewDidDisappear(animated)
if presentingViewController == nil
{
searchController.dismissViewControllerAnimated(false, completion: nil)
}
}