Parsing dissimilar type json response - ios

Question

I have a json response like so…
{
"message_code": 1,
"orderCount": 52,
"productCount": 5,
"outstandingPayment": [],
"pendingOrder": [
{
"order_id": 1,
"grand_total": 67.85
"customer_name": “xcvv”
"mobile_number": 2147483647
},
],
"bestWishes": [
{
"customer_id": 1,
"birth_date": "2018-02-02",
"type": "birth_date",
"customer_name": “xcvv”,
"mobile_number": 2147483647
},
{
"customer_id": 1,
"anniversary_date": "2018-02-02",
"type": "anniversary_date",
"customer_name": “sdfs”,
"mobile_number": 2147483647
}
]
}
To parse pendingOrder I have made a struct like so:
struct PendingOrder: Codable {
let order_id: Int
let grand_total: Double
let customer_name: String
let mobileNo: Int
init(order_id : Int, grand_total: Double, customer_name: String, mobileNo: Int) {
self.order_id = order_id
self.grand_total = grand_total
self.customer_name = customer_name
self.mobileNo = mobileNo
}
}
But how can I make a struct for bestWishes since each dictionary has dissimilar data i.e.the 1st dictionary has a field birth_date & the 2nd dictionary has a field anniversary_date...?
EDIT: While making Alamofire request, this is how I'm parsing each data and assigning them to struct..
if let bestWishes = result["bestWishes"] as? [[String:Any]] {
for anItem in bestWishes {
guard let customerId = anItem["customer_id"] as? Int,
let birthdate = anItem["birth_date"] as? String,
let customerName = anItem["customer_name"] as? String,
let mobNo = anItem["mobile_number"] as? Int,
let anniversaryDate = anItem["anniversary_date"] as? String,
let type = anItem["type"] as? String
else {continue}
let bestWishes = BestWishes(customer_id: customerId, birthDate: birthdate, type: type, customer_name: customerName, mobileNo: mobNo, anniversaryDate: anniversaryDate)
self.bestWishesArr.append(bestWishes)

Answer 1

First of all when using Codable basically you don't need an initializer.
Without a custom initializer (related to Codable) the most suitable solution is to declare both dates as optional
struct BestWish: Codable {
private enum CodingKeys : String, CodingKey {
case customerID = "customer_id"
case birthDate = "birth_date"
case anniversaryDate = "anniversary_date"
case type
case customerName = "customer_name"
case mobileNumber = "mobile_number"
}
let customerID: Int
let birthDate: String?
let anniversaryDate: String?
let type: String
let customerName : String
let mobileNumber: Int
}
With a custom initializer declare one property date and decode anniversary or birth depending on type
struct BestWish: Decodable {
private enum CodingKeys : String, CodingKey {
case customerID = "customer_id"
case birthDate = "birth_date"
case anniversaryDate = "anniversary_date"
case type
case customerName = "customer_name"
case mobileNumber = "mobile_number"
}
let customerID: Int
let date: Date
let type: String
let customerName : String
let mobileNumber: Int
public init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
let container = try decoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
customerID = try container.decode(Int.self, forKey: .customerID)
type = try container.decode(String.self, forKey: .type)
if type == "anniversary_date" {
date = try container.decode(Date.self, forKey: .anniversaryDate)
} else {
date = try container.decode(Date.self, forKey: .birthDate)
}
customerName = try container.decode(String.self, forKey: .customerName)
mobileNo = try container.decode(Int.self, forKey: .mobileNumber)
}
}
You can distinguish the dates by the given type property.
To decode also the root object you need an umbrella struct
struct Root : Decodable {
// let pendingOrder : [PendingOrder]
let bestWishes : [BestWish]
}
Rather than the deserialized dictionary you have to get the JSON string in Data format from the Alamofire request to pass it to JSONDecoder
do {
let decoder = JSONDecoder()
let formatter = DateFormatter()
formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"
decoder.dateDecodingStrategy = .formatted(formatter)
let result = try decoder.decode(Root.self, from: data)
print(result)
} catch { print(error) }
Edit: I added code to decode both dates as Date

Answer 2

Use optional type
struct BestWishes: Codable {
let birth_date: Date?
let anniversary_date: Date?
init(birth_date : Date?, anniversary_date: Date?) {
self.birth_date = birth_date
self.anniversary_date = anniversary_date
}
}