How to change UITableview's array content from a dictionary input? - iphone

Question

I have many different arrays with dictionaries of hotels in a data model class. For example, the array madridHotels would hold dictionaries of hotels in Madrid. To list these hotels in a tableview, I use a method called madridHotelsCount in my dataModel class:
-(int)madridHotelsCount {
return self.madridHotels.count;
}
In a tableview's numberOfRowsInSection method, I would put
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView*)theTableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
return [self.dataModel madridHotelsCount];
}
in order to list the hotels in Madrid. This works just fine. But since I have about 20 cities, I have a feeling that having 20 different VC's and XIB's to make city-based tableviews is plain stupid and wasteful.
In my "Select City" tableview, each city has a key called cityString with the appropriate string meant for the "Hotels in City X" tableview. In Madrid's case, for example, the string would be madridHotelsCount. If I'm not mistaken there is a way to use this information when pushing the "Hotels in City X" tableview controller.
What I can't figure out is how to change the string madridHotelsCount in the tableview method with, for example, barcelonaHotelsCount depending on a key in a "Select City" tableview so that I can only use one VC and XIB.
Hope this makes sense...

Answer 1

You need to change it to something like this so you pass the hotel to each view.
-(int)hotelCountForCity:(NSString *)cityName
I would rewrite it so it was more generic as you shouldn't be repeating yourself like that.
although its not the best way, but if all that code is already there, you can..
NSString city = #"madrid";
SEL selector = selectorFromString([NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#HotelsCount", city]);
int count = 0;
if([self respondsToSelector:selector])
{
int *count = [self performSelector:selector];
}

Answer 2

Change the data structure in dataModel to use
#property (nonatomic, retain) NSDictionary *citiesHotels;
The cities are the keys and the values are the arrays of hotels.
An example might be like
NSArray *madrid = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:#"madridHotelA", #"madridHotelB", nil];
NSArray *barcelona = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:#"barcelonaHotelA", #"barcelonaHotelB", nil];
NSDictionary *citiesHotels = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:madrid, #"Madrid", barcelona, #"barcelona", nil];
[madrid release]; madrid = nil;
[barcelona release]; barcelona = nil;
self.citiesHotels = citiesHotels;
[citiesHotels release]; citiesHotels= nil;
Add a method to the model like this
- (NSInteger)hotelCountForCity:(NSString *)city
{
int count = 0;
NSArray *hotels = [self.citiesHotels valueForKey:city];
if (hotels) {
count = [hotels count];
}
return count;
}
To get the hotel you would need something like this in your model
- (Hotel *)hotelAtIndex:(NSInteger)index forCity:(NSString *)city
{
NSArray * hotels = [self.citiesHotels valueForKey:city];
return [hotels objectAtIndex:index];
}
These are called like this
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView*)theTableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
return [self.dataModel hotelCountForCity:theSelectedCityName];
}
And in `cellForRowAtIndexPath you do
Hotel *hotel = [self.dataModel hotelAtIndex:indexPath.row forCity:theSelectedCity];