CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-cxmlcocoaparsingplist
christo16
christo16

Reputation: 4843

Parse Plist (NSString) into NSDictionary

So I have a plist structured string, that get dynamically (not from the file system). How would I convert this string to a NSDictionary.

I've tried converting it NSData and then to a NSDictionary with NSPropertyListSerialization, but it returns "[NSCFString objectAtIndex:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x100539f40" when I attempt to access the NSDictionary, showing that my Dictionary was not successfully created.

Example of the NSString (that is the plist data):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> 
<plist version="1.0"> 
<dict> 
 <key>Key1</key> 
 <dict> 
  <key>Test1</key> 
  <false/> 
  <key>Key2</key> 
  <string>Value2</string> 
  <key>Key3</key> 
  <string>value3</string> 
 </dict> 
</dict> 
</plist>

Thanks!

Upvotes: 26

Views: 30831

Answers (3)

Peter N Lewis
Peter N Lewis

Reputation: 17811

See Serializing a Property List (web.archive.org link)

NSData* plistData = [source dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSString *error;
NSPropertyListFormat format;
NSDictionary* plist = [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListWithData:plistData mutabilityOption:NSPropertyListImmutable format:&format errorDescription:&error];
NSLog( @"plist is %@", plist );
if(!plist){
    NSLog(@"Error: %@",error);
    [error release];
}

Upvotes: 75

Peter Hosey
Peter Hosey

Reputation: 96373

I've tried converting it NSData and then to a NSDictionary with NSPropertyListSerialization, but it returns "[NSCFString objectAtIndex:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x100539f40" when I attempt to access the NSDictionary, showing that my Dictionary was not successfully created.

No, it shows no such thing. What it shows is that you tried to treat a string as an array. You'd need to determine where in the plist you were trying to get an array and why there was a string where you expected an array—i.e., whether you created the plist incorrectly (putting a string into it where you meant to put an array) or are examining it incorrectly (the presence of a string is correct; your subsequent expectation of an array is wrong).

Upvotes: 1

Marco Mustapic
Marco Mustapic

Reputation: 3859

Try this:

NSData * data = [yourString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

NSString *errorDesc = nil;
NSPropertyListFormat format;
NSDictionary * dict = (NSDictionary*)[NSPropertyListSerialization
                                      propertyListFromData:data
                                      mutabilityOption:NSPropertyListMutableContainersAndLeaves
                                      format:&format
                                      errorDescription:&errorDesc];

Upvotes: 13

Related Questions