Displaying JSON data nicely in Swift 3 - swift

Question

I'm quite new to swift and I'm trying to display JSON data received from a server in 3 columns, however, I'd like the text to line up and possibly remove the brackets surrounding each bit of text. I've attached an image below, along with my code.
let u = UserDefaults.standard.value(forKey: "userIP")!
var request = URLRequest(url: URL(string: "http://\(u):3000/logs")!)
request.httpMethod = "POST"
let postString = "LockID=\(lockid)"
request.httpBody = postString.data(using: .utf8)
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in
guard let data = data, error == nil else { // check for fundamental networking error
print("error=\(error)")
return
}
if let httpStatus = response as? HTTPURLResponse, httpStatus.statusCode != 200 { // check for http errors
print("statusCode should be 200, but is \(httpStatus.statusCode)")
print("response = \(response)")
DispatchQueue.main.async() {
self.displayMyAlertMessage("response = \(response)")
}
}
let responseString = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)
// print("responseString = \(responseString)")
if let data = responseString?.data(using: String.Encoding.utf8) {
let resString = JSON(data: data)
if resString["success"].stringValue == "true"
{
// save the data to be manipulated and stored in table somehow
let returned_name = resString["message"].arrayValue.map({$0["name"].stringValue})
let returned_time = resString["message"].arrayValue.map({$0["lockTime"].stringValue})
let returned_type = resString["message"].arrayValue.map({$0["type"].stringValue})
DispatchQueue.main.async() {
self.updatename!.text = "\(returned_name.description)"
self.updateLock!.text = " \(returned_type.description)"
self.updateText!.text = " \(returned_time.description)"
}
}
else if resString["success"].stringValue == "false"
{
DispatchQueue.main.async() {
self.displayMyAlertMessage(resString["message"].stringValue)
}
}
Im maniplulating the JSON data with SwiftyJSON. Any ideas on how i can strip out the [""]?
Cheers

Answer 1

returned_name and the other returned... variables is an array of strings caused by the map function. Printing an array using the description method displays "[item1, item2, item3]". To print each string separately you need a repeat loop.
let returnedArray = resString["message"].arrayValue // you might cast the object to `[[String:Any]]`
for item in returnedArray {
print(item["name"])
print(item["lockTime"])
print(item["type"])
}
To display the values in a table view you need a model, the best way is a custom struct
struct Item {
let name : String
let lockTime : String
let type : String
}
Then create a data source array
var items : [Item]()
And map your received JSON to the model
let returnedArray = resString["message"].arrayValue
for item in returnedArray {
let name = item["name"] ?? ""
let lockTime = item["lockTime"] ?? ""
let type = item["type"] ?? ""
items.append(Item(name:name, lockTime:lockTime, type:type))
}
Put the code to parse the JSON in viewDidLoad and call reloadData() at the end, in cellForRow get the item for the row from the array and display the values for example:
let item = items[indexPath.row]
self.updatename!.text = item.name
self.updateLock!.text = item.lockTime
self.updateText!.text = item.type
PS: since you are new to Swift don't use snake case variable names (returned_name), use camel case (returnedName).