3

I have a NSDictionary loaded from a remote PList. It contains an array of dictionaries:

(
    {
    id = "1234";
    count = "45";
    },
    {
    id = "244";
    count = "89";
    },
    {
    id = "9909";
    count = "123";
    }
)

How do I get this into an NSArray? I don't want separate arrays for each key. I just want an NSArray of NSDictionary.

There is probably a simple answer, but this has been bugging me.

Thanks

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3
  • what is this " It contains an array of dictionaries: I just want an NSArray of NSDictionary". Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 17:29
  • What you have there is an array of name-values pair. Dictionaries are really good at holding onto and manipulating name-value pairs, so maybe that's what you want to do -- import the list of NVPairs into a dictionary? If not, then I think you might want to better explain what you mean by an "NSArray of NSDictionary". Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 17:30
  • The PList looks like this: <array> <dict> <key>id</key> <real>1234</real> <key>count</key> <real>123</real> </dict> <dict> <key>id</key> <real>223</real> <key>count</key> <real>2</real> </dict> <dict> <key>id</key> <real>777</real> <key>count</key> <real>15523</real> </dict> </array> The root element of the created NSDictionary is an array without a key. I'm trying to figure out how to get this array into a NSArray. If I added this array with a key, I could just use objectForKey to get the NSArray. Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 17:40

3 Answers 3

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1

You say you have a dictionary containing the array. Whatever the key for the array is, just ask do [dictionary objectForKey:theKey], and you'll have the array.

EDIT: From your comments, it sounds like you just have an NSArray which is not in an NSDictionary at all. If so, you already have what you are looking for.

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7 Comments

There is no key for the array. That's the problem. :s
@Ty Kroll: Then you don't have "a NSDictionary loaded from a remote PList … [that] contains an array of dictionaries". Everything that's in a dictionary has a key. If there's no key for it, it's not in a dictionary. So the question is: What do you actually have, if not a dictionary?
That is odd indeed. I use NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListFromData:mutabilityOption:format:error to load NSData from a remote PList with the format above. Perhaps it should have saved me from myself. I definitely have an array of dictionaries. Printing my resulting NSDictionary shows something similar to what I showed in my first post.
@Ty Kroll: Have you tried asking the object what its class is? It sounds like you just have an NSArray.
Whoah! __NSCFArray. Crazy. Just casting it into NSArray* did the trick. Curious why I could get away with passing it around as a NSDictionary* when it was really a NSArray*.
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0

How about:

NSArray *dicts = [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListWithData:data
                                                           options:0
                                                            format:NSPropertyListOpenStepFormat
                                                             error:NULL];

Note that this is a deprecated plist format (XML or binary format is now preferred).

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2 Comments

Is this only available in >= XCode 4?
No, it's been available for a long time.
0

have u tried [dictionary objectAtIndex:0]objectAtIndex:0]. try iterating over objectAtIndex in the outer loop.

all the best.

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