nsdictionary with arrays nspredicate filtering - ios

Question

I have a tableview that i want to search through with a searchable. It worked before but when i added sections i got into trouble because i had to change from arrays to dictionary.
So basically i have a NSDictionary that looks like this
{ #"districtA": array with point objects, #"districtB": array with point objects}
I need to filter them based on the point objects.name that is in the arrays. After that i want to create a new nsdictionary with the filtered objects in it.
I tried at least 10 different methods but i can't figure it out so i think this is the only way that i am most positive that should work.
This is the only way i can think of if there is an easier way or more logic way please tell me.
-(void)filterContentForSearchText:(NSString*)searchText scope:(NSString*)scope {
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"SELF.name BEGINSWITH[c] %#",searchText];
//create new array to fill
NSArray *arrayWithFilteredPoints = [[NSArray alloc] init];
//loop through the values and put into an rray based on the predicate
arrayWithFilteredPoints = [NSArray arrayWithObject:[[self.PointList allValues] filteredArrayUsingPredicate:predicate]];
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [#{} mutableCopy];
for (Point *point in arrayWithFilteredPoints) {
if (![dict objectForKey:Point.district])
dict[Point.district] = [#[] mutableCopy];
[dict[Point.district]addObject:Point];
}
self.filteredPointList = dict;
self.filteredDistrictSectionNames = [[dict allKeys] sortedArrayUsingSelector:#selector(localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:)];}
This results in a crash, it happens of course where the predicate is used but i don't know how to debug what predicate i should use:
on 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: 'Can't do a substring operation with something that isn't a string (lhs = (
West ) rhs = w)'

Answer 1

I have read the comments and you are right. There was something wrong with my code.
I changed the logic, i added some more steps (like creating NSArray without needing it) to make the solution clear
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"SELF.name BEGINSWITH[c] %#",searchText];
//1. create new array to fill only the Points from the dictionary
NSArray *allPoints = [self.PointList allValues];
NSMutableArray *allPointObjects = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
for (NSArray *array in allPoints) {
for (Point *point in array) {
[allPointObjects addObject:point];
}
}
//2. loop through allPointObjects and put into an mutablearray based on the predicate
NSArray *arrayWithFilteredPoints = [[NSArray alloc] init];
arrayWithFilteredPoints = [allPointObjects filteredArrayUsingPredicate:predicate];
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [#{} mutableCopy];
for (Point *point in arrayWithFilteredPoints) {
if (![dict objectForKey:point.district])
dict[point.district] = [#[] mutableCopy];
[dict[point.district]addObject:Point];
}
self.filteredPointList = dict;
self.filteredDistrictSectionNames = [[dict allKeys] sortedArrayUsingSelector:#selector(localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:)];
I wanted a filtered nsdictionary at the end that i can pass back to my tableview that reads the dictionary objects based on the keys (districts)

Answer 2

It seems clear from your description that [self.PointList allValues] is not an array of Point objects but an array of arrays of Point objects. That is the source of your difficulty, including your original crash.
You need to decide what to do about that; for example, if you want just one big array of Point objects, then flatten the array of arrays before you filter. I can't advise you further because it is not obvious to me what ultimate outcome you desire.
EDIT You've now modified your code and I can see more clearly what you're trying to do. You have a dictionary whose values are arrays of points, and you are trying to filter some of the points out of each array. What I would have done is to do that - i.e., run thru the keys, extract each array, filter it, and put it back (or delete the key if the array is now empty). But I can see that what you are doing should work, because you have cleverly put the keys into the points to start with, so you can reconstruct the dictionary structure from that.