NSString: Find parts of string in another string

Question

I know how to find a string in another string, that is easy. But in this case I want to find John Smith within the allProfessors string. So I figured I could just split the string and search for both parts, which works how I want:

NSString *fullName = @"John Smith";
NSArray *parts = [fullName componentsSeparatedByString:@" "];
NSString *allProfessors = @"Smith, John; Clinton, Bill; Johnson, John";
NSRange range = [[allProfessors lowercaseString] rangeOfString:[[parts objectAtIndex:0] lowercaseString]];
NSRange range2 = [[allProfessors lowercaseString] rangeOfString:[[parts objectAtIndex:1] lowercaseString]];
if(range.location != NSNotFound && range2.location != NSNotFound) {
    NSLog(@"Found");
} else {
    NSLog(@"Not Found");
}

What I want to know is, is this the BEST way to do this or is there a more preferred method to do what I want?

In addition to this, what if my fullName is longer than my allProfessors name, such as:

NSString *fullName = @"Gregory Smith";
NSString *allProfessors = @"Smith, Greg; Clinton, Bill; Johnson, John";

I still want there to be a match for Greg Smith and Gregory Smith.

It would be easier if allProfessors was an NSArray instead of an NSString. Then you could transpose fullName and search thru the array. — ott--
– ott--, Commented Sep 20, 2011 at 17:34

Sam · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-20 18:13:57Z

2

You could use regular expressions, which I prefer to use. See RegexKitLite.

With RegexKitLite, you could use a regular expression like (untested):

NSString *regEx = @"(?i)Smith,\\s*\\w";
NSArray *matchingStrings = [allProfessors componentsMatchedByRegex:regEx];

if ([matchingStrings count] == 0)  // not found!
{
   [...]
}
else
{
   [...]
}

Using RegexKitLite you could alternatively have used [NSString stringByMatching:(NSString*)].

You can really do a lot with regular expression. There are a ton of different functions available through Using RegexKitLite. The regular expression above should find people with the last name of Smith.

Regular Expression explained:

(?i) make this case insensitive
Smith matches last name of Smith. Obviously you could change this to anything
, match a comma
\\s* match any number of spaces (greedy)
\\w match a word

Also, you could use [NSString rangeOfString:options:] function like:

if ([myString rangeOfString:@"John" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch].location != NSNotFound &&
    [myString rangeOfString:@"Smith" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch].location != NSNotFound)
{
   NSLog(@"Found");
}
else
{
   NSLog(@"Not Found");
}

Also see similar functions like [rangeOfString:options:range:locale:] so that you can do case insensitive searches and even specify a locale.

edited Sep 20, 2011 at 18:13

answered Sep 20, 2011 at 17:27

Sam

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6 Comments

Sam Over a year ago

I'm not sure this is what you were looking for. If not, perhaps I should be asking the same question as you! :) Anyways, hopefully this is remotely helpful and provides some new information. If this is not useful, leave me a comment and I will remove it. Regular expressions are truly awesome however. They solve the dilemma of "pattern matching" nicely, but it may be overkill if you just want to see if a string contains another string. We use the NSString rangeOfString:options: where I work.

ott-- Over a year ago

And what do you return for "Bill Smith"?

Sam Over a year ago

@ott +1 I really should make my solution more flexible.

Nic Hubbard Over a year ago

Sam, I just updated my question. Can you look at the last part I just added and let me know if you think regular expressions would help in this case?

Sam Over a year ago

If you want to match based on whether someone has a last name or not, then ya regular expression would work great.

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