How to get values from unknown key in NSDictionary iphone? - iphone

Question

I have one more big problem while parse the values from Webservice response. I dont know the key for the values in the webservice response. For example,
class = (
{
"ObjectiveC" =
(
{
"brief_desc" = "ObjectiveC";
date = "2008-02-27";
"event_status" = Attended;
},
{
"brief_desc" = "ObjectiveC";
date = "2008-03-05";
"event_status" = Attended;
},
{
"brief_desc" = "ObjectiveC";
date = "2008-03-12";
"event_status" = Missed;
},
);
},
{
"Java" = (
{
"brief_desc" = "Java";
date = "2008-02-27";
"event_status" = Attended;
},
{
"brief_desc" = "Java";
date = "2008-03-05";
"event_status" = Attended;
},
{
"brief_desc" = "Java";
date = "2008-03-12";
"event_status" = Missed;
},
);
}
);
In this response even we dont know the keys "ObjectiveC" and "Java". The keys("ObjectiveC and Java") should be change in every response retured. How to get values of key (Unknown key)? How can i parse this response and get the values?

Answer 1

I would enumerate through the keys to get the value. Here is an example of enumeration in objective-c.
NSEnumerator *enumerator = [myDictionary keyEnumerator];
id key;
while ((key = [enumerator nextObject])) {
//assuming value will be string
NSString *valueForKey = [myDictionary valueForKey:key];
//assuming value is another dictionary
NSDictionary *subDictionary = [myDictionary objectForKey:key];
}
And if you don't know the keys of the sub dictionaries, you can enumerate through those as well.

Answer 2

NSDictionary has - (NSArray *)allKeys and - (NSArray *)allValues. One of those might help
NSDictionary * lessonDict = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:#"Key", #"Value", #"Key 2", #"Value 2", nil];
NSArray *values = [lessonDict allValues];
NSArray *keys = [lessonDict allKeys];
NSLog(#"Keys: %#",keys);
NSLog(#"Values: %#",values);