Convert to NSArray - iOS sdk - iphone

Question

Is there a place where I can read up on this or maybe better to give me an example, how to change this code into an NSArray?
-(void)loadOurAnnotations
{
CLLocationCoordinate2D workingCoordinate;
workingCoordinate.latitude = -37.711455; //This has to be an integer
workingCoordinate.longitude = 176.285013; //This has to be an integer
MyAnnotation *myLocation1 = [[MyAnnotation alloc] initWithCoordinate:workingCoordinate]; //The pointer has to be set to an array
[myLocation1 setTitle:#"The Palms Cafe"]; //The pointer and the setTitle here
[myLocation1 setSubtitle:#"157 Domain Road - [phone]"]; //The pointer and the setSubTitle here
[myLocation1 setAnnotationType:MyAnnotationTypeMine]; //again the pointer here
[mapView addAnnotation:myLocation1]; //and the pointer here
}
All of the pointers obviously come from the same place in the array and that whole piece of code (within the curly braces) is one record, so if I want to add another place i'll need to copy all of that again.
So what I am wanting to achieve is to set that up in a Plist, so that I can add the records in there, but only have the -(void)loadOurAnnotations be set once in the code and repeat itself. Of course if I should drop the -(void)loadOurAnnotations then that is not an issue, its just the way I have it at the moment.
As you may be able to tell by the info I gathering, these will be represented as an annotation on a MKMapView.
Any help is appreciated:-)
-Jeff

Answer 1

If I understood correctly,
First: you read your data from plist file into NSArray via some modal class. ( The example below "Location" just a modal class, and I fill in via core data )
// Location.h
#interface Location : NSManagedObject
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSNumber * longitude;
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSNumber * latitude;
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSString * name;
#end
// Location.h
#implementation Location
#dynamic longitude;
#dynamic latitude;
#dynamic name;
#end
Second: in your "loadOurAnnotations" method, iterate all values in "locationArray" which contains Location objects and for each Location object, I create PinLocation instance ( subclass of MkAnnotation ), and add them into mapView.
for(Location *location in locationArray) {
NSString *name = [location name];
CLLocationCoordinate2D coordinate;
coordinate.latitude = [[location latitude] doubleValue];
coordinate.longitude = [[location longitude] doubleValue];
PinLocation *pinLocation = [[PinLocation alloc] initWithName:name coordinate:coordinate];
[self.mapView addAnnotation:pinLocation];
}