Re: NSPredicate: To be, or not to be

FROM : Gerriet M. Denkmann
DATE : Tue Jun 03 10:18:32 2008

On 3 Jun 2008, at 11:52, <email_removed> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 7:37 PM, Gerriet M. Denkmann
> <<email_removed>> wrote:

>> On 3 Jun 2008, at 03:30, stephen joseph butler wrote:
>>

>>> I'm sorry. I forget that the Spotlight predicate strings are 
>>> slightly
>>> different from the regular ones. This works for me:
>>>
>>> NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"%K LIKE
>>> %@", kMDItemTextContent, @"To be, or not to be"];

>>
>> This one also works for me. Only it kind of works too well, finding
>> thousands of files.
>>
>> Another example: <kMDItemTextContent LIKE "Briggel Braggel"> finds
>> ".../Test.txt" which only contains the line: "Briggel and Braggel" .
>> But I really want only files which contain "Briggel Braggel" or 
>> "the Briggel
>> Braggel of today".
>>
>> Again: How to create a predicate for an 10.4.11 NSMetadataQuery to 
>> find a
>> string which includes blanks.
>> Possible answers:
>> Escape the blanks with ..., or
>> Enclose whole string with ..., or something else ?

>
> For me, the following only finds one match when run with "To be, or
> not to be" (a file from Fink)... not the thousands you're getting. And
> if I create only one file on my system with "Briggel and Braggel", I
> get no hits for "Briggel Braggel" (and only one for the correct
> phrase).
>
> I'm not sure what's different about your code, but I suspect the
> problem isn't the NSPredicate.


I modified your example slightly (to make it palatable to Tigers) and 
it behaves quite differently to what you are seeing.

Output:
  Finding: "Briggel Braggel"
  Predicate: <kMDItemTextContent LIKE[cd] "Briggel Braggel">
      1: "/Volumes/เม่น/Users/gerriet/Desktop/Briggel and 
Braggel.txt"
      2: "/Volumes/เม่น/Users/gerriet/Library/Mail/.../Sent 
Messages.mbox/Messages/52191.emlx"
      3: "/Volumes/เม่น/Users/gerriet/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/
Lists/Dev.mbox/Messages/52203.emlx"

The first file (Briggel and Braggel.txt) contains only the line: 
"Briggel and Braggel".

Maybe Tiger behaves diffently to Leopard (at least Spotlight-wise)?

So: Any suggestions for a Tiger-solution?

Here is my code:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#include <CoreServices/CoreServices.h>

int main (int argc, const char * argv[])
{
   NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
   
   if (argc != 2)
   {
       NSLog( @"usage: %s <query>", argv[ 0 ] );
       return 1;
   }
   
   NSString *value = [NSString stringWithCString:argv[ 1 ]];
   NSLog(@"Finding: \"%@\"", value);
   
   NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:
                             @"%K LIKE[cd] %@",
                             kMDItemTextContent,
                             value];
   NSLog(@"Predicate: <%@>", predicate);
   NSMetadataQuery *query = [[NSMetadataQuery alloc] init];
   
   [query setPredicate:predicate];
   [query startQuery];
   
   while ([query isGathering])
       [[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop]
       runMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode
       beforeDate:[NSDate distantFuture]];
   
   unsigned resultCount = [ query resultCount ];    
   for (unsigned i = 0; i < resultCount; i++ )
   {
       NSMetadataItem *item = [query resultAtIndex: i ];
       NSString *s = [item valueForAttribute:(NSString*)kMDItemPath];
       NSLog( @"%5u: \"%@\"", i + 1 ,s );
   }
   
   [pool release];
   return 0;
}

Kind regards,

Gerriet.