CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iosobjective-c
Daniel Watson
Daniel Watson

Reputation: 225

.plist access array of dictionaries?

My .plist starts with an Array Root and then has multiple keys of dictionaries containing six items each.

    - (void)viewDidLoad
    {


        NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"Questions" ofType:@"plist"];

        self.questions = [NSArray arrayWithContentsOfFile:path];

        NSDictionary *firstQuestion = [self.questions objectAtIndex:0];

        self.questionLabel.text = [firstQuestion objectForKey:@"QuestionTitle"];

        [self.ansOne setTitle:[firstQuestion objectForKey:@"A"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
        [self.ansTwo setTitle:[firstQuestion objectForKey:@"B"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
        [self.ansThree setTitle:[firstQuestion objectForKey:@"C"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
        [self.ansFour setTitle:[firstQuestion objectForKey:@"D"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];

But I load blank labels, here's the XML of my .plist

        <?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">
        <array>
            <dict>
                <key>QuestionTitle</key>
                <string>Which of the following probes will achieve the highest penetration?</string>
                <key>A</key>
                <string>5.0 Mhz</string>
                <key>B</key>
                <string>4.0 Mhz</string>
                <key>C</key>
                <string>3.4 Mhz</string>
                <key>D</key>
                <string>1.0 Mhz</string>
                <key>QuestionAnswer</key>
                <string>D</string>
            </dict>
            <dict>
                <key>QuestionTitle</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>A</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>B</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>C</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>D</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>QuestionAnswer</key>
                <string></string>
            </dict>
            <dict>
                <key>QuestionTitle</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>A</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>B</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>C</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>D</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>QuestionAnswer</key>
                <string></string>
            </dict>
        </array>
        </plist>

I was following a tutorial and many other people were facing this issue, can anyone point me in the right direction, or fix the code for me please?

Thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 132

Answers (2)

Alex J
Alex J

Reputation: 1019

My app does the same thing yours is trying to do except my plist root is a dictionary instead of an array.

Instead of:

self.questions = [NSArray arrayWithContentsOfFile:path];

Use: 

NSDictionary* questions = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:path];

And then to get to the question you want to, use:

NSDictionary *firstQuestion = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithDictionary:[questions objectForKey:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]]];

Upvotes: 1

idoodler
idoodler

Reputation: 3545

I faced the same issue, I fixed it by using NSPropertyListSerialization like this: 

NSString *error;
   NSPropertyListFormat format;
   id obj = [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListFromData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"Questions" ofType:@"plist"]] mutabilityOption:NSPropertyListMutableContainersAndLeaves format:&format errorDescription:&error];
   if ([obj isKindOfClass:[NSDictionary class]]) {
          NSMutableDictionary *dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithDictionary:obj];
      } else {
          NSMutableArray *arr = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:obj];
   }

Upvotes: 1

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