Most blogposts I found on this topic don’t explain it from the beginning, so it took me quite a while to figure out how simple and powerful the sqlite fulltext search API (FTS3) actually is.
- get the sqlite3 amalgamation sources (v3.6.22) and just unpack it into your iPhone project – sqlite3 as shipped on the iPhone doesn’t support FTS3,
- activate FTS3 support,
- create the index table programmatically inside your App as your Macs default sqlite3 doesn’t support FTS3 either,
- use it like any other table except using the MATCH operator for index queries.
That’s it, and it’s hell quick.