How to get an array from URLSession - ios

Question

Trying to make a program for a news site. I take information from the site through the api, everything works fine.
The only question is, how do I get this array out of the loop?
Here is my code:
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {
var news:[News] = []
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
getUsers()
print(news)
}
func getUsers() {
guard let url = URL(string: "http://prostir.news/swift/api2.php") else {return}
URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) { data, response, error in
if let data = data {
do {
news = try JSONDecoder().decode([News].self, from: data)
// print(self.news)
} catch let error {
print(error)
}
}
}.resume()
}
}

Answer 1

struct News:Codable, CustomStringConvertible{
let href:String?
let site:String?
let title:String?
let time:String?
var description: String {
return "(href:- \(href), site:- \(site), title:- \(title), time:- \(time))"
}
}
Declare news array in your class and assign the response to this array in getUsers method
var news:[News] = []
func getUsers(){
guard let url = URL(string: "https") else {return}
URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) { data, response, error in
if let data = data {
do {
self.news = try JSONDecoder().decode([News].self, from: data)
print(self.news)
} catch let error {
print(error)
}
}
}.resume()
}

Answer 2

The fundamental problem is you are retrieving data asynchronously (e.g. getUsers will initiate a relatively slow request from the network using URLSession, but returns immediately). Thus this won’t work:
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
getUsers()
print(news)
}
You are returning from getUsers before the news has been retrieved. So news will still be [].
The solution is to give getUsers a “completion handler”, a parameter where you can specify what code should be performed when the asynchronous request is done:
enum NewsError: Error {
case invalidURL
case invalidResponse(URLResponse?)
}
func getUsers(completion: #escaping (Result<[News], Error>) -> Void) {
let queue = DispatchQueue.main
guard let url = URL(string: "http://prostir.news/swift/api2.php") else {
queue.async { completion(.failure(NewsError.invalidURL)) }
return
}
URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) { data, response, error in
if let error = error {
queue.async { completion(.failure(error)) }
return
}
guard
let data = data,
let httpResponse = response as? HTTPURLResponse,
200 ..< 300 ~= httpResponse.statusCode
else {
queue.async { completion(.failure(NewsError.invalidResponse(response))) }
return
}
do {
let decoder = JSONDecoder()
decoder.dateDecodingStrategy = .secondsSince1970
let news = try decoder.decode([News].self, from: data)
queue.async { completion(.success(news)) }
} catch let parseError {
queue.async { completion(.failure(parseError)) }
}
}.resume()
}
Then your view controller can fetch the news, passing a “closure”, i.e. code that says what to do when the asynchronous call is complete. In this case, it will set self.news and trigger the necessary UI update (e.g. maybe refresh tableview):
class ViewController: UIViewController {
var news: [News] = []
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
fetchNews()
}
func fetchNews() {
getUsers() { result in
switch result {
case .failure(let error):
print(error)
case .success(let news):
self.news = news
print(news)
}
// trigger whatever UI update you want here, e.g., if using a table view:
//
// self.tableView.reloadData()
}
// but don't try to print the news here, as it hasn't been retrieved yet
// print(news)
}