How to load a txt file into an array - iphone

Question

I coded a method to load a txt file into an array. However, I'm not really happy with it as it looks terribly cumbersome to my beginner's eyes (I'm sure I don't need 50% of my code) and I am somehow wondering how I can specify the exact format of my txt file, e.g. NSUTF8StringEncoding.
Here is my code:
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0]; // Get documents directory
NSString *filePath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"Sample.txt"];
if (filePath) { // check if file exists - if so load it:
NSString *myText = [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
if (myText) {textView.text=myText;}
}
For any suggestions of how to polish this up and specify the right format, I'd be very grateful.

Answer 1

Try the following, assuming your file is in your bundle:
NSString * filePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"Sample" ofType:#"txt"];
NSError * error = nil;
NSString * contentsOfFile = [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:filePath encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:&error];

Answer 2

Into an array? You mean into a string, since is exactly what you're doing...
However, your code looks not bad, and most of it is just to grab the documents directory path, and that's not your fault, since it's exactly done this way, according to many knowledge bases.
As of the encoding, stringWithContentsOfFile is deprecated, please use stringWithContentsOfFile:encoding:error: (see the docs)
and you will be able to specify the correct encoding and get accurate error descriptions.