Build a Dictionary Class with Static Data (Swift) - swift

Question

I need some help to build a Class that will serve as basis for all static content my app will use like States, Cities, Countries, Company classification among others. I'm not expecting those to change over time (or there would be very little change).
As a reference, I'll consider for now Countries and Cities (the logic would be the same for all others)
Class Country:
import UIKit
class Country {
var name: String
var cities: [City]
init(name:String, cities:[City]) {
self.name = name
self.cities = cities
}
}
Class City:
import UIKit
class City {
var name: String
init(name:String) {
self.name = name
}
}
In my existing code, I use the reference to those 2 classes but I feed the data in my ViewController.
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController, UIPickerViewDelegate, UIPickerViewDataSource {
#IBOutlet weak var pickerView: UIPickerView!
#IBOutlet weak var countryLbl: UILabel!
var countries = [Country]()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
pickerView.delegate = self
pickerView.dataSource = self
// Adding Countries and Cities
countries.append(Country(name: "UK", cities: [City(name: "London"),City(name: "Manchester"), City(name: "Bristol")]))
countries.append(Country(name: "USA", cities: [City(name: "New York"),City(name: "Chicago")]))
countries.append(Country(name: "China", cities: [City(name: "Beijing"),City(name: "Shanghai"), City(name: "Shenzhen"), City(name: "Hong Kong")]))
}
func numberOfComponents(in pickerView: UIPickerView) -> Int {
return 2
}
func pickerView(_ pickerView: UIPickerView, numberOfRowsInComponent component: Int) -> Int {
if component == 0 {
return countries.count
} else {
let selectedCountry = pickerView.selectedRow(inComponent: 0)
return countries[selectedCountry].cities.count
}
}
func pickerView(_ pickerView: UIPickerView, titleForRow row: Int, forComponent component: Int) -> String? {
if component == 0 {
return countries[row].name
} else {
let selectedCountry = pickerView.selectedRow(inComponent: 0)
return countries[selectedCountry].cities[row].name
}
}
func pickerView(_ pickerView: UIPickerView, didSelectRow row: Int, inComponent component: Int) {
pickerView.reloadAllComponents()
let selectedCountry = pickerView.selectedRow(inComponent: 0)
let selectedCity = pickerView.selectedRow(inComponent: 1)
let cityR = countries[selectedCountry].cities[selectedCity].name
countryLbl.text = "The right answer was: in \(selectedCountry) in \(cityR)"
}
}
To make my code cleaner, I wanted to move code below to another class and call it from my ViewController
// Adding Countries and Cities
countries.append(Country(name: "UK", cities: [City(name: "London"),City(name: "Manchester"), City(name: "Bristol")]))
countries.append(Country(name: "USA", cities: [City(name: "New York"),City(name: "Chicago")]))
countries.append(Country(name: "China", cities: [City(name: "Beijing"),City(name: "Shanghai"), City(name: "Shenzhen"), City(name: "Hong Kong")]))
}
replaced by something like
let countriesAndCities = Dicitionary.getCountriesAndCities
// Here I would expect countriesAndCities to have the same content as countries.append(...) above.
Is this doable?
Thanks

Answer 1

As per rmaddy answer you can do your own json file by:
Creating your empty fil, save it as json file and in there you can paste the countries and cities.
Kindly see the code how I implement the pickerView in viewController..
If you can notice I print the "countryList" in my code below so I can check if the array of countriesJson is not empty. (Please check your logs)
Update for 2 components in pickerView.
enter image description here