UISearchDisplayController with more than one search term - ios

Question

I wonder if there is any way to search for more than one word using UISearchDisplayController? If I for example want to search for posts containing both "James" AND "London"? Or "James" and "Smith"?
I have searched but not found an answer to this.
This is what I do now, to see if the search term is in either the name or address.
- (void)filterContentForSearchText:(NSString*)searchText scope:(NSString*)scope
{
NSMutableArray *searchItemsPredicate = [NSMutableArray array];
NSPredicate *namePredicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"name contains[c] %#", searchText];
[searchItemsPredicate addObject:namePredicate];
NSPredicate *addressPredicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"address contains[c] %#", searchText];
[searchItemsPredicate addObject:addressPredicate];
NSCompoundPredicate *combinedPredicate = [NSCompoundPredicate orPredicateWithSubpredicates:searchItemsPredicate];
searchResults = [_array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:combinedPredicate];
}

Answer 1

A possible solution would be to separate each words.
You can use a NSRegularExpression or use simply componentsSeparatedByString: (to keep it simple).
NSArray *words = [searchText componentsSeparatedByString:#" "];
NSMutableArray *allPredicates = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for (NSString *aWord in words)
{
NSPredicate *addressPred = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"address contains[c] %#", aWord];
NSPredicate *namePred = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"name contains[c] %#", aWord];
[allPredicates addObject:addressPred];
[allPredicates addObject:namePred];
}
NSCompoundPredicate *finalPredicate = [[NSCompoundPredicate alloc] initWithType: NSOrPredicateType subPredicates:allPredicates];
searchResults = [_array filteredArrayUsingPredicate: finalPredicate];
You can use a more complexe scheme for your "words limitations" (comma, etc.) to mark delimitations for example:
Searching #"Banana, Apple fruit" could be in fact looking for "words" : #"Banana" and #"Apple fruit", in that case the separator string would be "," (and you may have to trim for white spaces).