Swift 4 decoding json using Codable - swift4

Question

Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I've looked at all the questions on here like from here How to decode a nested JSON struct with Swift Decodable protocol? and I've found one that seems exactly what I need Swift 4 Codable decoding json.
{
"success": true,
"message": "got the locations!",
"data": {
"LocationList": [
{
"LocID": 1,
"LocName": "Downtown"
},
{
"LocID": 2,
"LocName": "Uptown"
},
{
"LocID": 3,
"LocName": "Midtown"
}
]
}
}
struct Location: Codable {
var data: [LocationList]
}
struct LocationList: Codable {
var LocID: Int!
var LocName: String!
}
class ViewController: UIViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
let url = URL(string: "/getlocationlist")
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url!) { data, response, error in
guard error == nil else {
print(error!)
return
}
guard let data = data else {
print("Data is empty")
return
}
do {
let locList = try JSONDecoder().decode(Location.self, from: data)
print(locList)
} catch let error {
print(error)
}
}
task.resume()
}
The error I am getting is:
typeMismatch(Swift.Array, Swift.DecodingError.Context(codingPath:
[], debugDescription: "Expected to decode Array but found a
dictionary instead.", underlyingError: nil))

Answer 1

Check the outlined structure of your JSON text:
{
"success": true,
"message": "got the locations!",
"data": {
...
}
}
The value for "data" is a JSON object {...}, it is not an array.
And the structure of the object:
{
"LocationList": [
...
]
}
The object has a single entry "LocationList": [...] and its value is an array [...].
You may need one more struct:
struct Location: Codable {
var data: LocationData
}
struct LocationData: Codable {
var LocationList: [LocationItem]
}
struct LocationItem: Codable {
var LocID: Int!
var LocName: String!
}
For testing...
var jsonText = """
{
"success": true,
"message": "got the locations!",
"data": {
"LocationList": [
{
"LocID": 1,
"LocName": "Downtown"
},
{
"LocID": 2,
"LocName": "Uptown"
},
{
"LocID": 3,
"LocName": "Midtown"
}
]
}
}
"""
let data = jsonText.data(using: .utf8)!
do {
let locList = try JSONDecoder().decode(Location.self, from: data)
print(locList)
} catch let error {
print(error)
}

Answer 2

After searching lots of thing internet, I certainly figured out this is the sweetest way to print well formatted json from any object.
let jsonString = object.toJSONString(prettyPrint: true)
print(jsonString as AnyObject)

Answer 3

Apple documentation about JSONEncoder ->
struct GroceryProduct: Codable {
var name: String
var points: Int
var description: String?
}
let pear = GroceryProduct(name: "Pear", points: 250, description: "A ripe pear.")
let encoder = JSONEncoder()
encoder.outputFormatting = .prettyPrinted
let data = try encoder.encode(pear)
print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)!)
/* Prints:
{
"name" : "Pear",
"points" : 250,
"description" : "A ripe pear."
}
*/