Swift 4: Filtering Array

Question

i am new to swift, currently practicing

here i have a plist file, which has an Array Of Dictionaries , each dictionary has one string, the plist has 3 records, it looks like this

item 0:
kurdi: Googlee

item 1:
kurdi: Yahooe

item 2:
kurdi: Binge

here's a image for the plist; Screenshot 11:52AM

okay so the point is, when a user searches for oo for example two of the records contain oo , such as g oo gle and yah oo , i want to return an array of results,

for that case i used:

let path = Bundle.main.path(forResource:"hello", ofType: "plist")
let plistData = NSArray(contentsOfFile: path!)
let objCArray = NSMutableArray(array: plistData!)

 if let swiftArray = objCArray as NSArray as? [String] {

     let matchingTerms = swiftArray.filter({
      $0.range(of: "oo", options: .caseInsensitive) != nil // here
        })
        print(matchingTerms)

    }

but unfortunately, when i print matchingTerms it returns nil .. thanks

Answer 1

If you are new to Swift please learn first not to use NSMutable... Foundation collection types in Swift at all. (The type dance NSArray -> NSMutableArray -> NSArray -> Array is awful). Use Swift native types. And instead of NSArray(contentsOfFile use PropertyListSerialization and the URL related API of Bundle .

All exclamation marks are intended as the file is required to exist in the bundle and the structure is well-known.

let url = Bundle.main.url(forResource:"hello", withExtension: "plist")!
let plistData = try! Data(contentsOf: url)
let swiftArray = try! PropertyListSerialization.propertyList(from: plistData, format: nil) as! [[String:String]]
let matchingTerms = swiftArray.filter({ $0["kurdi"]!.range(of: "oo", options: .caseInsensitive) != nil })
print(matchingTerms)

Answer 2

Cast swift array to [[String:Any]] not [String] . And in filter you need to check the value of the key kurdi . Try this.

if let swiftArray = objCArray as? [[String:Any]] {
    let matchingTerms = swiftArray.filter { (($0["kurdi"] as? String) ?? "").range(of: "oo", options: .caseInsensitive) != nil }
    print(matchingTerms)
}