Use existing NSArray object properties to create a new NSArray for sectioned tableView - iphone

Question

So I have the kind of classic situation where I want to group my tableView by Month/Year. I have a member of my conference object called beginDateSearchString that I use to put different conference into buckets; my problem is in the next part where I try and fail to use a NSSortDescriptor to sort each bucket by beginDate (which is a date).
I am getting an error related to unsorted not being able to receive sort descriptor type selectors.
Here is the disgusting code:
- (NSArray *)arrayOfDateSortedEvents {
NSMutableArray *sortedArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSMutableDictionary *dictionary = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
//place into buckets
for (WSConference *conference in self.arrayOfEvents) {
if (![dictionary objectForKey:[conference beginDateSearchString]]) {
NSMutableArray *array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:conference,nil];
[dictionary setObject:array forKey:[conference beginDateSearchString]];
}
else {
[[dictionary objectForKey:[conference beginDateSearchString]] addObject:conference];
}
}
//sort each bucket by descriptor beginDate
NSSortDescriptor *descriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"beginDate" ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = [NSArray arrayWithObject:descriptor];
for (NSMutableArray *unsorted in dictionary) {
[unsorted sortUsingDescriptors:sortDescriptors];
}
// now, unkey and add dictionary in order
while ([dictionary count] > 0) {
NSString *lowest = nil;
for (NSMutableArray *array in dictionary) {
if (!lowest)
lowest = [[dictionary allKeysForObject:array] objectAtIndex:0];
else {
if ([(WSConference *)[array objectAtIndex:0] beginDate] < [[dictionary objectForKey:lowest] beginDate])
lowest = [[dictionary allKeysForObject:array] objectAtIndex:0];
}
}
[sortedArray addObject:[dictionary objectForKey:lowest]];
[dictionary removeObjectForKey:lowest];
}
return sortedArray;
}

Answer 1

You want to probably filter the array in addition to sorting. See NSPredicate and the NSArray method -filteredArrayUsingPredicate: Then create an eventsByDateArray of the eventArrays created by the filter. Then in your table view delegate for creating the cells, if everything is ordered properly, the first section would represent the date of the events in the eventArray that is the first object of the eventsByDateArray and the table rows would consist of the events in the eventArray. And so on for each date.
Added
Your fast enumeration is incorrect. You enumerate through the keys of the dictionary. So in your code unsorted equals each of the keys as it enumerates. This is a GREAT lesson to everyone. It does not matter how you 'type' a variable. When Objective-C compiles it turns them all into id. So NSMutableArray *unsorted is not an NSMutableArray unless it is assigned to an NSMutableArray. If you assign unsorted to an NSString it will be an NSString. The fast enumerator for a dictionary works using the keys. So, in this case, unsorted becomes an NSString.
Instead of:
for (NSMutableArray *unsorted in dictionary) {
[unsorted sortUsingDescriptors:sortDescriptors];
}
you should have this:
for (id key in dictionary) {
NSMutableArray *unsorted = [dictionary objectForKey:key];
[unsorted sortUsingDescriptors:sortDescriptors];
}