What's the UITableView index magnifying glass character?

Question

In Apple's iPhone apps (like Contacts), they have a nice magnifying glass icon at the top of the table view index. Since the table view index API is character-based, I assume that this magnifying glass is a Unicode character. So far I've resorted to placing a question mark character there, but that looks lame.

Can anyone tell me what character the magnifying glass is?

Answer 1

Someone claims that Apple told them this isn't supported in the SDK.

Answer 2

You can certainly put a Unicode character in the table view index (I've done this with other characters) and put your header in the first table section in lieu of of the tableViewHeader. That said, I've yet to find the magnifying glass in any of the unicode references. The closes I've found is the Telephone Recorder symbol - ⌕ (\u2315). Unfortunately, it points in the wrong direction and the "handle" extends into the "magnifying glass."

Answer 3

@"{search}" FTW.

Return that title and it's magically replaced by the correct glyph.

Answer 4

I can understand why someone might not want to use the image, although it is very pretty... characters are so much easier to maintain and can scale with little effort.

⚦ is another unicode option for a magnifying lens-like glyph.. again it's not facing the correct direction.. I believe it's really some kind of hermaphroditic gender symbol. The html for the unicode symbol above is ⚦

I really think a magnifying lens symbol should be added to the unicode character set under "26: Misc. Symbols".

Answer 5

Returning UITableViewIndexSearch as section index title (same as @"{search}") also works.

Answer 6

So this is all well and good. But what do you return for tableView:sectionForSectionIndexTitle:atIndex:? Returning 0 moves the table to the first section, but doesn't make the searchBar above the first section visible. -1 doesn't work either. I'm using a searchDisplayController. The search bar remains hidden "behind" the nav controller's title when you move to section 0.

Answer 7

the question is. if we use @"{search}";

will apple reject the app?

Answer 8

In tableView:sectionForSectionIndexTitle:AtIndex: explicitly scroll to the top and return NSNotFound:

- (NSInteger) tableView:(UITableView *)tableView
sectionForSectionIndexTitle:(NSString *)title
                atIndex:(NSInteger)index {
    if (index == 0) {
        [tableView setContentOffset:CGPointZero animated:NO];
        return NSNotFound;
    }
    return index;
}

Answer 9

A constant UITableViewIndexSearch is used in the case, as noted here:

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UITableView_Class/Reference/Reference.html#//apple_ref/doc/constant_group/Section_Index_Icons

Answer 10

i want to put the magnifying glass as an left overlay item into a text box? How would I use @"{search}" when textField.leftView expects an image?

Thanks!