Cannot retrieve comments from database (FIREBASE/IOS) - ios

Question

I'm kind of bashing my head at the moment because I can't seem to figure out the reason why my code isn't properly loading comments from the database, It's receiving the ID's for each comment for a post from the database (post_comments) but isn't able to retrieve any data?
func loadComments() {
let postCommentRef = Database.database().reference().child("post_comments").child("6AECB02A-CC97-4ECB-8A09-702E254D4CCD")
postCommentRef.observe(.childAdded, with: {
snapshot in
print("snapshot key")
print(snapshot.key)
Database.database().reference().child("comments").child(snapshot.key).observeSingleEvent(of: .value, with: {
snapshotComment in
//print(snapshotComment.value!)
if let dict = snapshotComment.value as? [String : Any] {
let newComment = Comment().transformComment(dict: dict)
self.fetchUser(uid: newComment.uid!, completed: {
self.comments.append(newComment)
self.tableView.reloadData()
print(newComment) <- trying to retrive data, I've posted below what the output of this is.
})
//let photoUrlString = dict["photoUrl"] as! String
}
})
})
}
in my code you can see that I've placed a little print function to see what data the code spits out, here's the output from the debug log.
snapshot key
L_sWOp0w1V8DaGSK7iK
snapshot key
L_sWQI70PogYAtwjla4
snapshot key
hello <-- this is a test uid I created in the DB, treat it like any other key listed above.
as you can see the outcome of the loadComments() function doesn't achieve much.
I'm not sure if it's needed but just in case it helps I've taken a screenshot of the database to show how it actually looks below.
if any further information is required please ask and I'll provide it, I've only provided what I believe is necessary, and I'm pretty certain it's due to the way I'm retrieving data from the database.
EDIT
After some playing around I've managed to get some kind of output from the second database call, which retrieves the key in the comments database, which is the same two that are in the post comments database however, the value returns null.
func loadComments() {
let postCommentRef = Database.database().reference().child("post_comments").child("6AECB02A-CC97-4ECB-8A09-702E254D4CCD")
postCommentRef.observe(.childAdded, with: {
snapshot in
print(snapshot.key)
Database.database().reference().child("comments").child(snapshot.key).observeSingleEvent(of: .value, with: { (snapshotComment) in
print("Snapshot value")
print(snapshotComment.value)
print("Snapshot.key")
print(snapshotComment.key)
//print(snapshotComment.value!)
//if let dict = snapshotComment.value as? [String : Any] {
// let newComment = Comment().transformComment(dict: dict)
// self.fetchUser(uid: newComment.uid!, completed: {
// self.comments.append(newComment)
// self.tableView.reloadData()
// print(newComment)
// })
//let photoUrlString = dict["photoUrl"] as! String
})
})
}
The outcome of this code is as follows..
L_sWOp0w1V8DaGSK7iK <-- these two come from the snapshot.key for post_comments
L_sWQI70PogYAtwjla4 <---^
Snapshot value
Optional(<null>)
Snapshot.key
L_sWOp0w1V8DaGSK7iK
Snapshot value
Optional(<null>)
Snapshot.key
L_sWQI70PogYAtwjla4
I'm going to keep my hopes up and try figure out the source of this issue, if nobody can provide an answer to this question I'm hoping to be able to find a way to answer it myself as I believe the database structure I'm attempting to build is a lot more efficient and provides a better user experience, if I'm wrong I'd appreciate knowing a better way :)
EDIT #2
I seemed to have resolved my issue, I've posted a detailed description below of how and what was causing the issue along with the code I am using after resolving the issue

Answer 1

So it seems the issue was something ridiculously simple like I had thought, however, not actually having worked with firebase before it slipped right over my head, anyway after taking a look in the firebase console at the database I noticed comments would show as this https://REDACTED/comments/-L_sWQI70PogYAtwjla4
in the database, after looking closely you can see that the id for the comment begins with a hyphen, but looking in the database it's self without looking at the URL wouldn't actually reveal this, so I've managed to resolve this issue with about 4 characters as follows
Database.database().reference().child("comments").child("-" + snapshot.key).observeSingleEvent(of: .value, with: {
as you can see the 4 characters I'm speaking of is "-" = which adds the hyphen to the database query and returns the correct values; I'm not sure if this is the best way but it works so I'm happy!
here's my code after all this fuss in hopes someone facing the same issue in the future will find this question and not have to go through what I have...
func loadComments() {
let postCommentRef = Database.database().reference().child("post_comments").child("6AECB02A-CC97-4ECB-8A09-702E254D4CCD")
postCommentRef.observe(.childAdded, with: {
snapshot in
print("snapshot key")
print(snapshot.key)
Database.database().reference().child("comments").child("-" + snapshot.key).observeSingleEvent(of: .value, with: {
snapshotComment in
//print(snapshotComment.value!)
if let dict = snapshotComment.value as? [String : Any] {
let newComment = Comment().transformComment(dict: dict)
self.fetchUser(uid: newComment.uid!, completed: {
self.comments.append(newComment)
self.tableView.reloadData()
print(newComment)
})
//let photoUrlString = dict["photoUrl"] as! String
}
})
})
}