Displaying .plist key values alphabetically in an UITableView - iphone

Question

I have an array of dictionaries in an iOS .plist structured similar to the following:
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
<dict>
<key>name</key>
<string>Afghanistan</string>
<key>government</key>
<string>Islamic Republic</string>
<key>population</key>
<integer>29121286
</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>name</key>
<string>Albania</string>
<key>government</key>
<string>Emerging Democracy</string>
<key>population</key>
<integer>2986952</integer>
</dict>
I am trying to load the <key>name</key> from each dictionary into an NSTableViewCell then display them all alphabetically in an NSTableView similar to the Contacts App in iOS.
Below are my ViewControllers .h and .m. The sort is working, but I am not able to load the results into the TableViewCells?
FirstViewController.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface FirstViewController : UIViewController <UITableViewDelegate,UITableViewDataSource>
{
NSArray *sortedCountries;
}
#property (nonatomic, retain) NSArray *sortedCountries;
#end
FirstViewController.m
#import "FirstViewController.h"
#implementation FirstViewController
#synthesize sortedCountries;
-(void)viewDidLoad {
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"countries"ofType:#"plist"];
NSArray *countries = [NSArray arrayWithContentsOfFile:path];
NSSortDescriptor *descriptor = [[[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"name" ascending:YES] autorelease];
NSArray *sortedCountries = [[countries sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:descriptor]] retain];
}
-(NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
return 1;
}
-(NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView
numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
return 2;
}
-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView
cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
NSDictionary *country = [sortedCountries objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
NSString *countryName = [country objectForKey:#"name"];
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell =
[tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault
reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
}
cell.textLabel.text = countryName;
return cell;
}
- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning {
[super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
}
- (void)viewDidUnload {
// Release any retained subviews of the main view.
// e.g. self.myOutlet = nil;
}
- (void)dealloc {
[sortedCountries release];
[super dealloc];
}
#end
EDIT: Another question related to this here.

Answer 1

Add an ivar to your view controller's #interface in the header file:
#interface MyViewController : UITableViewController
{
...
NSArray *sortedCountries;
}
Add this code (to read and sort the plist by country name) to your view controller's initWith... method:
NSArray *countries = [NSArray arrayWithContentsOfFile: pathToPlist];
// Now the array holds NSDictionaries, sort 'em:
NSSortDescriptor *descriptor = [[[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"name" ascending:YES] autorelease];
sortedCountries = [[countries sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:descriptor]] retain];
Then use the following snippet to extract the values:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
NSDictionary *country = [sortedCountries objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
NSString *countryName = [country objectForKey:#"name"];
NSString *governmentType = [country objectForKey:#"government"];
NSSInteger population = [[country objectForKey:#"population"] integerValue];
// ... do something with countryName, governmentType, population
}
Don't forget to release sortedCountries:
- (void)dealloc
{
...
[sortedCountries release];
[super dealloc];
}

Answer 2

Create an NSArray for your file:
NSArray *iOSPlist = [NSArray arrayWithContentsOfFile:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"iOS" ofType:#"plist"]];
then in this method write after if (cell == nil){
}:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
cell.textLabel.text = [[iOSPlist objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] objectForKey:#"name"];
}
and don't forget to return [iOSPlist count] in the - (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section method;

Answer 3

Here is an example pulling the version number out of the info.plist. Use something similar to pull out your name key ( objectForKey:#"name")
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath];
NSString *finalPath = [path stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"Info.plist"];
plist = [[NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:finalPath] retain];
NSString* version = [plist objectForKey:#"CFBundleVersion"];

Answer 4

Here's a StackOverflow question on working with data in plists. The answers get quite detailed.
Parse Plist (NSString) into NSDictionary