Getting particular nested items from JSON (objective-c)

Question

If I have a json string as below, what's the best way to get the first iteration of the name (bob) in objective-c?

{
    "users": [
        {"id": "1", "name": "bob"},
        {"id": "2", "name": "john"},
        {"id": "3", "name": "joe"}
    ]
}

BTW, I'm currently using JSONKit to parse the json string. For example, NSDictionary *users = [jsonString objectFromJSONString];

That JSON isn't valid. JSON can only have a single outer object. Should it be wrapped in []? — Fogmeister
– Fogmeister, Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 14:43
I would suggest you consider Apple's NSJSONSerialization which has existed since iOS 5. One less dependency. — Mike Weller
– Mike Weller, Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 14:48
This is blazingly simple: You have an "object" (dictionary) containing one element named "users". That one element is an array. The array elements are objects/dictionaries containing two elements. What have you tried?? — Hot Licks
– Hot Licks, Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 15:12

CouchDeveloper · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-21 14:52:08Z

1

Your "users" container is a NSDictionary, and this is an unordered associative container.

That is, strictly, there is no "first" element (a user). Of course, you can iterate with fast enumeration and get a first user, however which one is "implementation defined" (and since the implementation is not public, we do not know which one).

Edit:

Since now, after your edit, your "users" container is an array, the things change dramatically ;) Someone else give an answer.

answered Aug 21, 2013 at 14:52

CouchDeveloper

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Fogmeister · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-21 14:52:06Z

0

OK, first thing to do is drop any third party frameworks for JSON. There is now a native JSON class...

NSDictionary *dictionary = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:[jsonString dataUsingEncoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding] options:0 error:nil];

NSArray *users = dictionary[@"users"];

Once you've done this you can iterate the users array like you would any other array.

Each object in the users array is an NSDictionary with keys @[@"id", @"name"]

e.g.

for (NSDictionary *userDict in users) {
    NSLog(@"User name = %@", userDict[@"name"]);
}

answered Aug 21, 2013 at 14:52

Fogmeister

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