API gives me back a variable that has type Any. It looks like this when I print it.
{
"sender" : "Kira",
"created" : "08.05.2018",
"text" : "Cncncm"
}
I tried to use SwiftyJSON to cast it like this let mydata = JSON(data) but it failes. I tried to use Swift 4 decoding technique but that failed as well. I tried to do this let myData = data as? Dictionary<String, String> but it fails again.
I am clueless what to do here. Any tips or solutions?
Finally a chance to demonstrate one of the Codable protocols hidden gems. Please run the following in a Playground:
import Cocoa
let jsonData = """
{
"sender" : "Kira",
"created" : "08.05.2018",
"text" : "Cncncm"
}
""".data(using: .utf8)!
struct SenderText: Codable {
let sender: String
let created: Date
let text: String
}
let dayFormatter = DateFormatter()
dayFormatter.dateFormat = "dd.MM.yyyy"
let date = dayFormatter.date(from:"08.05.2018")
let decoder = JSONDecoder()
decoder.dateDecodingStrategy = .formatted(dayFormatter)
do {
let sendText = try decoder.decode(SenderText.self, from: jsonData)
print(sendText)
} catch {
print(error)
}
The sheer elegance of how easy it is to define such an intricate parser mapping a messy JSON-string to your favourite struct will hardly ever stop to amaze me. No matter how weird your date format looks, it is hardly more than 3 lines away from being parsed during the process.
There is something in regard to casting you should note though: In Swift, as in most object oriented languages, you can only cast something to something else if (and only if) it already is something else in the first place (but that knowledge has been lost somewhere). Since your String is "just" a String (in disguise of an Any maybe) you won't be able to cast it to anything else. However the Codable protocol provides you with a terrific means to decode from the Strings Data with astonishing ease. This process should not be mistaken as a cast, even if it looks largely the same. It is the creation and initialisation of another, more fittingly structured object from a simple piece of Data that you are likely to have gotten from your average web service of choice.
Great so far, at least in my book.
You can parse it like this as it's a json string
let trd = yourVar as? String
if let data = trd?.data(using: String.Encoding.utf8) {
do {
var content = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: .allowFragments) as! [String:String]
print(content)
}
catch let error as NSError {
print(error)
}
}
Related
Thanks for your help. I need interaction with Toml files in my macOS Swift application. I am using the TOMLDecoder library to parse the Toml format. The library works by specifying a Swift struct type that conforms to Codable, and have the library create the object for us. From the docs:
struct Discography: Codable {
struct Album: Codable {
let name: String
struct Song: Codable {
let name: String
}
let songs: [Song]
}
let albums: [Album]
}
If we take a sample Toml file:
[[albums]]
name = "Born to Run"
[[albums.songs]]
name = "Jungleland"
[[albums.songs]]
name = "Meeting Across the River"
[[albums]]
name = "Born in the USA"
[[albums.songs]]
name = "Glory Days"
[[albums.songs]]
name = "Dancing in the Dark"
We can parse it with:
let tomlData = try? Data(contentsOf: URL(fileURLWithPath: "/path/to/file"))
let discography = try? TOMLDecoder().decode(Discography.self, from: tomlData)
Here comes my question. The library does not provide a way to reverse the process, so to serialize back the object, so I would like to write that on my own, and, possibly, I would like to achieve a solution in clean Swift, if I understand correctly, by the use of the T type, thus allowing any kind of Codable conforming object to be serializable. The decode function in the library is:
public func decode<T: Decodable>(_ type: T.Type, from text: String) throws -> T {
let topLevel: Any
do {
topLevel = try TOMLDeserializer.tomlTable(with: text)
} catch {
throw DecodingError.dataCorrupted(DecodingError.Context(codingPath: [], debugDescription: "The given data was not valid TOML.", underlyingError: error))
}
let decoder = TOMLDecoderImpl(referencing: self, options: self.options)
guard let value = try decoder.unbox(topLevel, as: type) else {
throw DecodingError.valueNotFound(type, DecodingError.Context(codingPath: [], debugDescription: "The given data did not contain a top-level value."))
}
return value
}
I have started to write my encode function like the following:
class TOMLEncoder: TOMLDecoder {
func encode<T>(sourceObject: T) -> String {
return "Sample serialized text..."
}
}
I really don't know how to proceed... from my very limited knowledge I should iterate somehow on the sourceObject properties and create the TOML file from the contents of those properties, but I am not sure if that is the correct approach and how to achieve it. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
What I want to do:
I want to get an array from UserDefaults that I saved beforehand and append a custom object to it. Afterwards I want to encode it as a Data-type again and set this as the UserDefaults Key again.
My problem:
The encoding part is what is not working as intended for me.
It says: -[__SwiftValue encodeWithCoder:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x60000011a540
But I do not know how to fix this.
Below is my code for more context:
do {
let decoded = defaults.object(forKey: "ExArray") as! Data
var exo = try NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveTopLevelObjectWithData(decoded) as! [Exerc]
exo.append(datas[indexPath.row])
let enco = try NSKeyedArchiver.archivedData(withRootObject: exo, requiringSecureCoding: false) <- Here is the error
defaults.set(enco, forKey: "ExArray")
} catch {
print("Error encoding custom object NOSEARCHO")
}
This is how Exerc looks:
struct Exerc: Codable {
var title: String
var exID: String
}
Seems like you are not using the archiver features, so why don't you just use the codable?
do {
let key = "ExArray"
let decoded = defaults.data(forKey: key)!
var exo = try JSONDecoder().decode([Exerc].self, from: decoded)
exo.append(datas[indexPath.row])
let enco = try JSONEncoder().encode(exo)
defaults.set(enco, forKey: key)
} catch {
print("Error encoding/decoding custom object NOSEARCHO", error)
}
It just a simple refactored MVP of the original code, but you can even work a bit on this and make it human readable right in the plist file!
I'm fairly new to this. Anyway, here we go:
I have JSON data that comes from an API. For the sake of this question, I have simplified it greatly. You can run the following code in a Playground.
import UIKit
struct Book: Codable {
let image: String
}
// this comes from my API
let jsonString = "{ \"image\" = \"someURL\" }"
print(jsonString) // { "image" = "someURL" }
// convert String to Data
let jsonData = jsonString.data(using: .utf8)
// decode data (in my project, I catch the error, of course)
let decoder = JSONDecoder()
let decodingResult = try? decoder.decode(Book.self, from: jsonData!)
print(decodingResult) // nil
As you can see, I'm trying to decode my JSON-String into an Object (my Struct), but the Decoder always returns nil.
Can someone point me in the right direction?
Thank you.
Your current jsonString isn't a proper JSON. Change it to "{ \"image\": \"someURL\" }", and it should work. For more information on JSON syntax, check this manual.
I am creating simple Json Parser that works like that: I have JsonData class that contains Anyobject as data. When I use jsonData["key"] it returns JsonData to i can chain jsonData["key"]["key2"] etc.
My question is how can I implement that class so i could cast it to lets say String:
jsonData["key"] as String without using some workarouds like
jsonData["key"].data as String
Code:
class JsonData:CustomStringConvertible{
let data:AnyObject
var description: String{
get{
return "\(data)"
}
}
init(_ data: Data) {
self.data = try! JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: []) as! [[String:AnyObject]]
}
init(_ data: AnyObject) {
self.data = data
}
subscript(key:String) -> JsonData{
let newData = data as! [String:AnyObject]
let test = newData[key]!
return JsonData(test)
}
subscript(index:Int) ->JsonData{
let newData = data[index]!
return JsonData(newData)
}
}
In order to do this, you'd add another overload, but it won't work like you're thinking.
subscript(key: String) -> String {
let newData = data as! [String:AnyObject]
return newData[key] as! String
}
So then jsonData["key"] as String works, but jsonData["key"]["key2"] is ambiguous and you'd have to write it (jsonData["key"] as JsonData)["key2"] which probably isn't what you want.
The short answer to this is don't do this. If you need this much access to JSON, you're probably storing your data incorrectly. Parse it to structs as quickly as you can, and then work with structs. Convert the structs back to JSON when you want that. Extensive work with AnyObject is going to break your brain and the compiler over and over again. AnyObject is a necessary evil, not an every day tool. Soon you will encounter that terrible day that you have an AnyObject? and the compiler just breaks down in tears. Well, at least it isn't Any.
Putting that aside, the better solution is to use labeled-subscripts.
subscript(string key: String) -> String {
let newData = data as! [String:AnyObject]
return newData[key] as! String
}
Now you can access that as json[string: "key"] rather than json["key"] as String.
I have a dictionary which i convert to a string to store it in a database.
var Dictionary =
[
"Example 1" : "1",
"Example 2" : "2",
"Example 3" : "3"
]
And i use the
Dictionary.description
to get the string.
I can store this in a database perfectly but when i read it back, obviously its a string.
"[Example 2: 2, Example 3: 3, Example 1: 1]"
I want to convert it back to i can assess it like
Dictionary["Example 2"]
How do i go about doing that?
Thanks
What the description text is isn't guaranteed to be stable across SDK versions so I wouldn't rely on it.
Your best bet is to use JSON as the intermediate format with NSJSONSerialization. Convert from dictionary to JSON string and back.
I created a static function in a string helper class which you can then call.
static func convertStringToDictionary(json: String) -> [String: AnyObject]? {
if let data = json.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding) {
var error: NSError?
let json = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data, options: NSJSONReadingOptions.allZeros, error: &error) as? [String: AnyObject]
if let error = error {
println(error)
}
return json
}
return nil
}
Then you can call it like this
if let dict = StringHelper.convertStringToDictionary(string) {
//do something with dict
}
this is exactly what I am doing right now. Considering #gregheo saying "description.text is not guaranteed to be stable across SKD version" description.text could change in format-writing so its not very wise to rely on.
I believe this is the standard of doing it
let data = your dictionary
let thisJSON = try NSJSONSerialization.dataWithJSONObject(data, options: .PrettyPrinted)
let datastring:String = String(data: thisJSON, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)!
you can save the datastring to coredata.