Nested NSDictionary from plist
I have a plist with a main NSDictionary in which its keys are dates. For each date, I have an NSDictionary in which the keys are (let's say) categories. Each category contains keys and values.
I would like to create 2 variables, each containing the correct NSDictionary:
NSDictionary *dates = ?
NSDictionary *Categories = ?
Below is my plist, please help me understand how this should be done.
** Note. I know how to assign the first dictionary of dates from a plist ... just stuck with Categories.
NSDictionary *dict = [[NSDictionary alloc]initWithContentsOfFile:path];
self.dates = dict;
[dict release];
Plist:
<dict>
<key>2010-05-08</key>
<dict>
<key>Catergory1</key>
<dict>
<key>key1</key>
<string>value1</string>
<key>key2</key>
<string>value2</string>
<key>key3</key>
<string>value3</string>
</dict>
<key>Catergory2</key>
<dict>
<key>key1</key>
<string>value1</string>
<key>key2</key>
<string>value2</string>
<key>key3</key>
<string>value3</string>
</dict>
<key>2010-01-02</key>
<dict>
<key>Catergory1</key>
<dict>
<key>key1</key>
<string>value1</string>
<key>key2</key>
<string>value2</string>
<key>key3</key>
<string>value3</string>
</dict>
<key>Catergory2</key>
<dict>
<key>key1</key>
<string>value1</string>
<key>key2</key>
<string>value2</string>
<key>key3</key>
<string>value3</string>
</dict>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I searched the forum history and did not find anything that matches my scenario.
THANKS!
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1 answer
You have to markup the values as arrays, so you can just iterate over them.
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>dates</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>date</key>
<date>2010-05-17T12:40:32Z</date>
<key>categories</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>key</key>
<string>value</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>key</key>
<string>value</string>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>date</key>
<date>2010-05-17T12:40:32Z</date>
<key>categories</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>key</key>
<string>value</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>key</key>
<string>value</string>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
the code:
NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:pathToFile];
for (NSDictionary *date in [dict valueForKey:@"dates"]) {
NSArray *catgories = [date valueForKey:@"categories"];
}
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