Search through NSArray of objects with different locale - objective-c

Question

I have an array of phone number objects, the phone number model is as follows:
#property NSString *hotlineName;
#property NSString *hotlineNameAr;
#property NSString *hotlineNumber;
#property NSString *hotlineImage;
#property NSInteger hotlineID;
#property RLMArray<Tags> *hotlineTags;
when I perform a search, I filter the array if either hotlineName, hotlineNameAr, hotlineNumber and in property hotlineTags: tagName and tagNameAr contain the search text.
I used NSPredicate to filter the array as such:
-(void) searchForText: (NSString *) searchText{
NSString *predicateFormat = #"SELF.%K contains[cd] %#";
NSString *tagFormat = #"ANY SELF.hotlineTags.%K contains[cd] %#";
NSString *searchNameAttribute = #"hotlineName" ;
NSString *searchTagAttribute = #"tagName";
NSString *searchNameAttribute_ar = #"hotlineNameAr" ;
NSString *searchTagAttribute_ar = #"tagNameAr";
NSString *numberAttribute = #"hotlineNumber";
NSPredicate *namePredicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:predicateFormat, searchNameAttribute, searchText];
NSPredicate *tagPredicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:tagFormat, searchTagAttribute, searchText];
NSPredicate *namePredicate_ar = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:predicateFormat, searchNameAttribute_ar, searchText];
NSPredicate *tagPredicate_ar = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:tagFormat, searchTagAttribute_ar, searchText];
NSPredicate *numberPredicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:predicateFormat, numberAttribute, searchText];
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSCompoundPredicate orPredicateWithSubpredicates:#[namePredicate, numberPredicate, tagPredicate, namePredicate_ar, tagPredicate_ar]];
filteredResults = [hotlines_arr filteredArrayUsingPredicate:predicate];
}
and so far it works well, the problem arose when I search with numbers in a different locale, in this instance in Arabic, so used I NSNumberFormatter as such:
// Convert string From Arabic/Persian numbers to English numbers
+(NSString *) convertToEnglishNumber:(NSString *) string {
// NSNumericSearch
NSNumberFormatter *formatter = [[NSNumberFormatter alloc] init];
formatter.numberStyle = NSNumberFormatterDecimalStyle;
NSLocale *locale = [NSLocale localeWithLocaleIdentifier:#"EN"];
[formatter setLocale:locale];
NSNumber *number = [formatter numberFromString:string];
return [number stringValue];
}
but the problem with NSNumberFormatter is that any leading zero's are ignored in the conversion, so I need an alternative to format the NSString based on locale or search array while taking in consideration locale, the same option in spotlight search.
I also tried formatting as such but it was in vain.
NSString *str = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:#"%#" locale:locale, searchText];
NSString *localizedString =[NSString localizedStringWithFormat:#"%#", searchText];

Answer 1

As I couldn't think of any other option and this was a last resort, I ended up replacing the string but I'm very unhappy with answer:
+ (NSString *) replaceStrings: (NSString *) textToEdit{
NSLocale *locale = [NSLocale localeWithLocaleIdentifier:#"ar"];
for (NSInteger i= 0; i < 10; i++) {
NSString *stringVal = [#(i) stringValue];
NSString *localeString = [#(i) descriptionWithLocale:locale];
textToEdit = [textToEdit stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:localeString withString:stringVal];
}
return textToEdit;
}