How to replace/update dictionary in Array of Dictionary based on Type - ios

Question

I'm getting below JSON response from server, and displaying phone number on screen.
Now user can change/update any of phone number, so we have to update particular mobile number in same object and send it to server.
"phone_numbers": [
{
"type": "MOBILE",
"number": "8091212121"
},
{
"type": "HOME",
"number": "4161212943"
},
{
"type": "BUSINESS",
"number": "8091212344"
}
]
My model class is looks like this:
public struct Contact: Decodable {
public let phone_numbers: [Phone]?
}
public struct Phone: Decodable {
public let type: PhoneType?
public let number: String?
}
I'm struggling to update this JSON object for particular phone number.
For example, if I want to update BUSINESS number only in above array, What's best way to do it.
I'm using XCode 11 and Swift 5.

Answer 1

Because all your properties are defined as constants (let), nothing can be updated. You have to initialize and return a new Contact object with the updated phone numbers.
If you change the properties to var, then you can update:
public enum PhoneType: String, Decodable {
case mobile = "MOBILE"
case home = "HOME"
case business = "BUSINESS"
}
public struct Contact: Decodable {
public var phone_numbers: [Phone]?
mutating func update(phoneNumber: String, for type: PhoneType) {
guard let phone_numbers = self.phone_numbers else { return }
for (i, number) in phone_numbers.enumerated() {
if number.type == type {
self.phone_numbers![i].number = phoneNumber
}
}
}
}
public struct Phone: Decodable {
public var type: PhoneType?
public var number: String?
}
var contact = try! JSONDecoder().decode(Contact.self, from: jsonData)
contact.update(phoneNumber: "123456", for: .business)

Answer 2

I'm struggling to update this JSON object for particular phone number.
It shouldn't be a JSON object when you update it. Think of JSON as just a format for transferring data. Once transferred, you should parse it into something that you can work with, like an array of dictionaries or whatever. If you've done that, then more specific questions you might ask are:
How can I find a specific entry in an array?
How can I modify the fields of a struct?
How can I replace one entry in an array with another?
After looking at the definitions of your structures, I think the problem you're having probably has to do with how you've declared them:
public struct Phone: Decodable {
public let type: PhoneType?
public let number: String?
}
Because you used let to declare type and number, those fields cannot be changed after initialization. If you want the fields of a Phone struct to be modifiable, you need to declare them with var instead of let.
The same thing is true for your Contact struct:
public struct Contact: Decodable {
public let phone_numbers: [Phone]?
}
You've declared phone_numbers as an immutable array because you used let instead of var. If you want to be able to add, remove, or modify the array in phone_numbers, you need to use var instead.
The struct declarations you have right now work fine for reading the data from JSON because all the components of the JSON data are constructed using the values from the JSON. But again, you'll need to make those structs modifiable by switching to var declarations if you want to be able to make changes.

Answer 3

There are a couple of ways to approach this (I'm assuming PhoneType is an enum you have somewhere)
You can iterate over the array and guard for only business numbers, like so
for phone in phone_numbers{
guard phone.type == .MOBILE else { continue }
// Code that modifies phone
}
You can filter and iterate over the array, like so
phone_numbers.filter {$0.type == .BUSINESS }.forEach { phone in
// Modify phone here
}
You can then modify the right value in the array with it's index, like this
for (phoneIndex, phone) in phone_numbers.enumerated() {
guard phone.type == .BUSINESS else { continue }
phone_numbers[phoneIndex].type = ANOTHER_TYPE
}
Some can argue that the second is preferred over the first, because it is an higher order function, but in my day to day activities, I tend to use both and believe that this is a matter of taste