Getting autocomplete to work in swift

Question

I am trying to implement autocompletion, but can\'t find an example that works in Swift. Below, I\'m tring to convert Ray Wenderlich\'s autocompletion tutorial and example c

Answer 1

Fixed for iOS 9.0 and Swift 2:

import UIKit

class UIAutoCompleteTextField: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource, UITextFieldDelegate {
    @IBOutlet weak
    var textField: UITextField!
        let autocompleteTableView = UITableView(frame: CGRectMake(0, 80, 320, 120), style: UITableViewStyle.Plain)

    var pastUrls = ["Men", "Women", "Cats", "Dogs", "Children"]
    var autocompleteUrls = [String]()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        autocompleteTableView.delegate = self
        autocompleteTableView.dataSource = self
        autocompleteTableView.scrollEnabled = true
        autocompleteTableView.hidden = true
    }

    func textField(textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersInRange range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) - > Bool {
        autocompleteTableView.hidden = false
        let substring = (textField.text!as NSString).stringByReplacingCharactersInRange(range, withString: string)

        searchAutocompleteEntriesWithSubstring(substring)
        return true // not sure about this - could be false
    }

    func searchAutocompleteEntriesWithSubstring(substring: String) {
        autocompleteUrls.removeAll(keepCapacity: false)

        for curString in pastUrls {
            let myString: NSString! = curString as NSString

            let substringRange: NSRange! = myString.rangeOfString(substring)

            if (substringRange.location == 0) {
                autocompleteUrls.append(curString)
            }
        }

        autocompleteTableView.reloadData()
    }

    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
    }

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) - > Int {
        return autocompleteUrls.count
    }

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) - > UITableViewCell {

        let autoCompleteRowIdentifier = "AutoCompleteRowIdentifier"
        let cell: UITableViewCell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier(autoCompleteRowIdentifier, forIndexPath: indexPath) as UITableViewCell
        let index = indexPath.row as Int

        cell.textLabel!.text = autocompleteUrls[index]
        return cell
    }

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
        let selectedCell: UITableViewCell = tableView.cellForRowAtIndexPath(indexPath) !
            textField.text = selectedCell.textLabel!.text
    }
}

Answer 2

The table was not appearing because the UITextField delegate was not to self in viewDidLoad. There was another final issue with the table not showing the autocompletion results, but this is also fixed. Ray Wenderlich's basic Objective-C autocompletion tutorial converted to Swift:

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITextFieldDelegate, UITableViewDelegate,   UITableViewDataSource {

@IBOutlet weak var textField: UITextField!
@IBOutlet var autocompleteTableView: UITableView!

// @IBOutlet weak var autocompleteTableView = UITableView(frame: CGRectMake(0,80,320,120), style: UITableViewStyle.Plain)

var pastUrls = ["Men", "Women", "Cats", "Dogs", "Children"]
var autocompleteUrls = [String]()

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    textField.delegate = self

    autocompleteTableView!.delegate = self
    autocompleteTableView!.dataSource = self
    autocompleteTableView!.scrollEnabled = true
    autocompleteTableView!.hidden = true
}

func textField(textField: UITextField!, shouldChangeCharactersInRange range: NSRange, replacementString string: String!) -> Bool
{
    println("banana")
    autocompleteTableView!.hidden = false
    var substring = (self.textField.text as NSString).stringByReplacingCharactersInRange(range, withString: string)

    searchAutocompleteEntriesWithSubstring(substring)
    return true
}

func searchAutocompleteEntriesWithSubstring(substring: String)
{
    autocompleteUrls.removeAll(keepCapacity: false)
    println(substring)

    for curString in pastUrls
    {
        println(curString)
        var myString: NSString! = curString as NSString
        var substringRange: NSRange! = myString.rangeOfString(substring)
        if (substringRange.location == 0)
        {
            autocompleteUrls.append(curString)
        }
    }

    autocompleteTableView!.reloadData()
}

override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
    super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
}

func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
    return autocompleteUrls.count
}

func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell
{
    let autoCompleteRowIdentifier = "AutoCompleteRowIdentifier"
    var cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier(autoCompleteRowIdentifier) as? UITableViewCell

    if let tempo1 = cell
    {
        let index = indexPath.row as Int
        cell!.textLabel.text = autocompleteUrls[index]
    } else
    {
        cell = UITableViewCell(style: UITableViewCellStyle.Value1, reuseIdentifier: autoCompleteRowIdentifier)
    }
    return cell!
}

func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
    let selectedCell : UITableViewCell = tableView.cellForRowAtIndexPath(indexPath)!
    textField.text = selectedCell.textLabel.text
}

}

Answer 3

I put together a tutorial that is full of pictures on how to recreate this now 6 year old tutorial

matthewhsingleton.com/coding-with-a-rubber-ducky/2016/5/26/… – RubberDucky4444

Answer 4

For future guys, that might get to work on autocomplete texfield with Swift 2, the code provided by @dane works well. but you have to change this line:

let cell : UITableViewCell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier(autoCompleteRowIdentifier, forIndexPath: indexPath) as UITableViewCell

by

let cell = UITableViewCell(style: UITableViewCellStyle.Default , reuseIdentifier: cellIdentifier)

Also, you might notice that the it is case sensitive, and doesn't work if you enter lowercase string (e.g cats) by default. So to solve this issue you can replace add the option "CaseSensitiveSearch" to the substringRange declaration (in the func searchAutocompleteEntriesWithSubstring). it should look like:

let substringRange :NSRange! = myString.rangeOfString(substring,options [.CaseInsensitiveSearch])

Hope it will help you save one day!!!

Answer 5

Got it working with the below. The upper/lower case threw it off initially. I'm using it to autocomplete country names...

import UIKit

class billingAddressViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource, UITextFieldDelegate {


    @IBOutlet var countryTextField: UITextField!
    @IBOutlet var countryTableView: UITableView!

    var autocompleteCountries = [String]()

    // Get list of countries
    let countries = NSLocale.ISOCountryCodes().map { (code:String) -> String in
        let id = NSLocale.localeIdentifierFromComponents([NSLocaleCountryCode: code])
        return NSLocale(localeIdentifier: "en_US").displayNameForKey(NSLocaleIdentifier, value: id) ?? "Country not found for code: \(code)"
    }

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        countryTextField.delegate = self

        countryTableView!.delegate = self
        countryTableView!.dataSource = self
        countryTableView!.scrollEnabled = true
        countryTableView!.hidden = true
    }

    func textField(textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersInRange range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {

        print("text field has changed")
        countryTableView!.hidden = false

        let substring = (self.countryTextField.text! as NSString).stringByReplacingCharactersInRange(range, withString: string)
        print(substring)
        searchAutocompleteEntriesWithSubstring(substring)
        return true
    }

    func searchAutocompleteEntriesWithSubstring(substring: String) {
        autocompleteCountries.removeAll(keepCapacity: false)
        print(substring)

        for curString in countries {
            //print(curString)
            let myString: NSString! = curString.lowercaseString as NSString
            let substringRange: NSRange! = myString.rangeOfString(substring.lowercaseString)
            if (substringRange.location == 0) {
                autocompleteCountries.append(curString)
            }
        }

        countryTableView!.reloadData()
    }

    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
        // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
    }


    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return autocompleteCountries.count
    }

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let autoCompleteRowIdentifier = "AutoCompleteRowIdentifier"
        var cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier(autoCompleteRowIdentifier) as UITableViewCell!

        if let tempo1 = cell {
            let index = indexPath.row as Int
            cell!.textLabel!.text = autocompleteCountries[index]
        }

        else {
            cell = UITableViewCell(style: UITableViewCellStyle.Value1, reuseIdentifier: autoCompleteRowIdentifier)
        }

        return cell!
    }

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
        let selectedCell : UITableViewCell = tableView.cellForRowAtIndexPath(indexPath)!
        countryTextField.text = selectedCell.textLabel!.text
        countryTableView.hidden = true
    }

}

Answer 6

Here you have a nice-to-have library in order to simplify that work: https://github.com/apasccon/SearchTextField