NSString: Find parts of string in another string - objective-c

Question

I know how to find a string in another string, that is easy. But in this case I want to find John Smith within the allProfessors string. So I figured I could just split the string and search for both parts, which works how I want:
NSString *fullName = #"John Smith";
NSArray *parts = [fullName componentsSeparatedByString:#" "];
NSString *allProfessors = #"Smith, John; Clinton, Bill; Johnson, John";
NSRange range = [[allProfessors lowercaseString] rangeOfString:[[parts objectAtIndex:0] lowercaseString]];
NSRange range2 = [[allProfessors lowercaseString] rangeOfString:[[parts objectAtIndex:1] lowercaseString]];
if(range.location != NSNotFound && range2.location != NSNotFound) {
NSLog(#"Found");
} else {
NSLog(#"Not Found");
}
What I want to know is, is this the BEST way to do this or is there a more preferred method to do what I want?
In addition to this, what if my fullName is longer than my allProfessors name, such as:
NSString *fullName = #"Gregory Smith";
NSString *allProfessors = #"Smith, Greg; Clinton, Bill; Johnson, John";
I still want there to be a match for Greg Smith and Gregory Smith.

Answer 1

You could use regular expressions, which I prefer to use. See RegexKitLite.
With RegexKitLite, you could use a regular expression like (untested):
NSString *regEx = #"(?i)Smith,\\s*\\w";
NSArray *matchingStrings = [allProfessors componentsMatchedByRegex:regEx];
if ([matchingStrings count] == 0) // not found!
{
[...]
}
else
{
[...]
}
Using RegexKitLite you could alternatively have used [NSString stringByMatching:(NSString*)].
You can really do a lot with regular expression. There are a ton of different functions available through Using RegexKitLite. The regular expression above should find people with the last name of Smith.
Regular Expression explained:
(?i) make this case insensitive
Smith matches last name of Smith. Obviously you could change this to anything
, match a comma
\\s* match any number of spaces (greedy)
\\w match a word
Also, you could use [NSString rangeOfString:options:] function like:
if ([myString rangeOfString:#"John" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch].location != NSNotFound &&
[myString rangeOfString:#"Smith" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch].location != NSNotFound)
{
NSLog(#"Found");
}
else
{
NSLog(#"Not Found");
}
Also see similar functions like [rangeOfString:options:range:locale:] so that you can do case insensitive searches and even specify a locale.