UISearchBar & filterContentForSearchText

[smithms]

I have a core data backed app for which I am implementing a searchBar.

Search scope is on a couple of string fields and date fields. The string searches work fine but the date searches are not returning what I would expect.

If I use "==" in my Predicate and try to search on an exact date, nothing gets returned.
If I use ">=" then I do get my date however I also get everything later than my date which I don't really want.

I would like to search on exact dates. I suspect this issue has something to do with the date formatting of the core data date field vs. my searchText formatting.

The output from "moveInDateFromSearchText" looks like this: 2009-09-19 07:00:00 +0000

       // Search on moveOutDate
	}else if ([scope isEqualToString:@"Out"]){
		
		dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
		[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"MM-dd-yyyy"];
		NSDate *moveOutDateFromSearchText = [dateFormatter dateFromString: searchText];
		
		NSPredicate * predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"moveOutDate >= %@", moveOutDateFromSearchText];
		self.filteredListContent = [[[self fetchedResultsController] fetchedObjects] filteredArrayUsingPredicate:predicate];
	
		
		NSLog(@"moveOutDateFromSearchText = %@",moveOutDateFromSearchText);
	
	// Search All
	}else { 
           // etc.....
       {

Thanks in advance for any help.

[BrianSlick]

I can't help specifically with CoreData or NSPredicate, but will offer this about dates...

Using a formatter does not limit the components that an NSDate object describes. So yes, you are formatting day, month, and year. This does not mean that hours, minutes, and seconds don't exist in that date object. They do, they simply have default values. Your log result proves this. Those values should correspond to midnight, although I'm not sure where that 7 is coming from. The important part is: those values are still there.

So when you are doing a date comparison, and looking for dates that are "equal", you have to keep this in mind. If the date you are comparing to is the same day, but occurs at 12:54:32 PM, then that won't be a match.

So you'll have to figure out how to do a date range search, or possibly do a string comparison after running both date values through your formatter.

[smithms]

Yup. That was the problem. I modified my search criteria to use a date range with dateByAddingTimeInterval and its working fine now. I forgot that date formatter doesn't actually change the underlying data.

Thanks Brian!