Pulling data out of NSMutableDictionary and adding to a different NSMutableDictionary - ios

Question

SETUP
I have a NSMutableDictionary with over 800 NSMutableDictionaries in it representing employees. I am trying to implement a search bar and i am having serious issues working with my dictionaries.
In the first For Loop i cread a dictionary for searching, and in the send i am attempting to search each employee in that dictionary.
PROBLEM
How can i add an individual dictionary to a new dictionary to hold all the dictionaries with the search term in it?
- (void) searchTableView:(UISearchBar *)theSearchBar {
NSString *searchText = theSearchBar.text;
NSMutableDictionary *searchDict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
for (NSDictionary *employee in employeeData)
{
[searchDict setValue:employee forKey:[employee objectForKey:kFULLNAME_TAG]];
}
for (NSDictionary *emp in searchDict)
{
NSString *empName = [emp objectForKey:kFULLNAME_TAG];
NSRange titleResultsRange = [empName rangeOfString:searchText options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch];
if (titleResultsRange.length > 0){
NSLog(#"search result ---> %#" ,emp);
[copyListOfItems setValue:empName forKey:emp];
}
}
}
In the second For Loop, I am having trouble with the copyListOfItems setValue:empName forKey:emp.

Answer 1

I think you have your parameters backwards when inserting into your copyListOfItems (which I'm assuming is an NSMutableDictionary ivar in your class?). The employee object should be the value and the employee name should be the key.
[copyListOfItems setValue:emp forKey:empName];
You shouldn't need to use two loops to accomplish what you need though. This would be simpler:
for (NSDictionary *emp in employeeData)
{
NSString *empName = [emp objectForKey:kFULLNAME_TAG];
NSRange titleResultsRange = [empName rangeOfString:searchText options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch];
if (titleResultsRange.location != NSNotFound){
[copyListOfItems setValue:emp forKey:empName];
}
}