Saving JSON responce to NSDictionary - iphone

Question

This is what my JSON return;
{
"1": {
"name": "Sharon",
"telephone": "48-9929329483"
},
"2": {
"name": "Sage",
"telephone": "48-9560333267"
},
"3": {
"name": "Alex",
"telephone": "48-8467982378"
}
}
I need to save this in a NSDictionary. My workings are as follows;
NSDictionary *contentOfDictionary = [responseString JSONValue];
NSDictionary* studentDictionary = [contentDictionary objectForKey:#"1"];
NSString *nameOfStudent = [studentDictionary objectForKey:#"name"];
NSString *nameOfStudent = [studentDictionary objectForKey:#"telephone"];
NSDictionary* studentDictionary1 = [contentDictionary objectForKey:#"2"];
NSString *nameOfStudent1 = [studentDictionary objectForKey:#"name"];
NSString *nameOfStudent1 = [studentDictionary objectForKey:#"telephone"];
..... etc
So this is what i do to save the attributes to dictionaries and strings. But the problem is that i am hard-coding the key value 1,2,3 etc.. (ex: [contentDictionary objectForKey:#"2"];)
In reality i don't know how many students will the JSON file have. There might be 100 or even more. So how can i write this in a way where the code will automatically, read JSON response (all 100 records) and save it to NSDictionary and vice versa ?
note: I guess i have to use a for loop or something.

Answer 1

It looks like you have a dictionary in 'contentsOfDictionary' where the keys are "1", "2", ... and the values are dictionaries containing the names/telephone numbers. So you just need to iterate through all the values:
NSMutableArray *studentDictionaries = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for (NSDictionary *studentDictionary in contentOfDictionary.allValues)
{
[studentDictionaries addObject:studentDictionary];
}

Answer 2

If each dictionary entry in your JSON response is uniquely numbered and increasing without gaps, then you could do the following:
NSMutableArray *studentDictionaries = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSUInteger index = 1;
NSDictionary *studentDictionary;
while (studentDictionary = [contentDictionary objectForKey:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", index++]]) {
[studentDictionaries addObject:studentDictionary];
}

Answer 3

Take a look at NSJSONSerialization available since iOS5 (or SBJSON framework). You'll get your JSON parsed and embedded in obj-c objects.

Answer 4

Instead of using NSDictionary to store responsestring JSONValue
NSDictionary *contentOfDictionary = [responseString JSONValue];
use NSArray to store responsestring JSONValue
NSArray *arr= [responseString JSONValue];
In this way you will get the total count ,each object in the array is a dictionary which can be accessed easily.