How to create sectioned/grouped table view alphabetically

Question

I am creating an app that parses huge xml file and gets the data into table view. The user can enter text into search bar to search the table view.

Now, i want to m

Answer 1

You can get the sample project at https://github.com/shreeshgarg/sectiontable

First you have to sort the data using NSSortDescriptor, than create a dictionary which keys are first letter of data each key should have an array of records starting from same letter.

you can do it as

-(NSMutableDictionary *)fillingDictionary:(NSMutableArray *)ary
{

// This method has the real magic of this sample
// ary is the unsorted array
// keyArray should be global as you need to access it outside of this function

     keyArray=[[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
    [keyArray removeAllObjects];

    NSMutableDictionary *dic=[[NSMutableDictionary alloc]init];

    // First sort the array

    [ary sortUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)];


    // Get the first character of your string which will be your key

    for(NSString *str in ary)
    {
        char charval=[str characterAtIndex:0];
        NSString *charStr=[NSString stringWithUTF8String:&charval];
        if(![keyArray containsObject:charStr])
        {
            NSMutableArray *charArray=[[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
            [charArray addObject:str];
            [keyArray addObject:charStr];
            [dic setValue:charArray forKey:charStr];
        }
        else
        {
            NSMutableArray *prevArray=(NSMutableArray *)[dic valueForKey:charStr];
            [prevArray addObject:str];
            [dic setValue:prevArray forKey:charStr];

        }

    }
    return dic;

}