Use UISearchController without storyboard

Question

I am relatively new to iOS (100 hours or so) and I am trying to implement a UISearchController without a storyboard. Is it possible to do this programmatically?

Answer 1

You have to implement UISearchController programmatically since Apple hasn't provided the ability to set it up using Storyboard yet.

Here are the steps to implement UISearchController in a view controller

• Conform to UISearchResultsUpdating Protocol

• Create a variable to reference the UISearchController

  var searchController: UISearchController!
  

• Set searchController in viewDidLoad(_:)

  override func viewDidLoad() {
      super.viewDidLoad()
  
      searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
  
      // The object responsible for updating the contents of the search results controller.
      searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self
  
      // Determines whether the underlying content is dimmed during a search.
      // if we are presenting the display results in the same view, this should be false
      searchController.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
  
      // Make sure the that the search bar is visible within the navigation bar.
      searchController.searchBar.sizeToFit()
  
      // Include the search controller's search bar within the table's header view.
      tableView.tableHeaderView = searchController.searchBar
  
      definesPresentationContext = true
  }
  

• Implement the method updateSearchResultsForSearchController(_:), which is called when the search bar becomes the first responder or when the user makes changes to the text inside the search bar

  func updateSearchResultsForSearchController(searchController: UISearchController) {
      // No need to update anything if we're being dismissed.
      if !searchController.active {
          return
      }
  
      // you can access the text in the search bar as below
      filterString = searchController.searchBar.text
  
      // write some code to filter the data provided to your tableview
  }