Build URL from NSDictionary - ios

Question

In my application I need to build an url like :
https://www.thefootballapi/football/league1/player/stats
In order to be able to build the url, I need to access the objects in an NSDictionary, since NSDictionary is an unordered data set, I need to sort the objects alphabetically in order to build the correct url:
NSDictionary
{
category = "football";
league = " League1 " ;
section = player;
"sub_category" = "stats";
}
I have tried doing this by writing this block of code:
Accessing the objects:
NSArray *keyyy0= [self.redirect allKeys];
id aaKey0 = [keyyy0 objectAtIndex:0];
id aanObject0 = [self.redirect objectForKey:aaKey0];
NSArray *keys = [self.redirect allKeys];
id aKey = [keys objectAtIndex:1];
id anObject = [self.redirect objectForKey:aKey];
NSArray *keyyy = [self.redirect allKeys];
id aaKey = [keyyy objectAtIndex:2];
id aanObject = [self.redirect objectForKey:aaKey];
and building the full url like this :
NSString *fullurl = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#%#%#%#", newurl,anObject,aanObject,aanObject3 ];
This method works fine for now, however I was wondering if this is the correct way of doing this ? is there a better way of implementing this ?
For example as it's mentioned here : Joe's answer ,NSURLQueryItem is used to access objects from dictionaries and build queries from it, however when I used NSURLQueryItem the full url was built with ? and = signs.
Are there any other methods that can be used to just get all of the objects in an NSDictionary ?

Answer 1

When accessing values from an NSDictionary there's no guarantee what type it will be. With full type-checking, a safer and more readable way of creating your URL might be something like:
NSDictionary *redirect = #{#"category" : #"football",
#"league" : #" League1 ",
#"section" : #"player",
#"sub_category" : #"stats"};
id category = redirect[#"category"];
id league = redirect[#"league"];
id section = redirect[#"section"];
id subCategory = redirect[#"sub_category"];
if ([category isKindOfClass:[NSString class]] &&
[league isKindOfClass:[NSString class]] &&
[section isKindOfClass:[NSString class]] &&
[subCategory isKindOfClass:[NSString class]])
{
NSString *urlString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"https://www.thefootballapi/%#/%#/%#/%#",
[((NSString*)category).lowercaseString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]],
[((NSString*)league).lowercaseString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]],
[((NSString*)section).lowercaseString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]],
[((NSString*)subCategory).lowercaseString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]]];
NSLog(#"%#", urlString); // https://www.thefootballapi/football/league1/player/stats
}
This also ensures the URL is generated as you wanted (lowercase "league1" without leading/trailing whitespace) given your input JSON.

Answer 2

Try this code.
//Your Dictionary
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary new];
[dict setValue:#"football" forKey:#"category"];
[dict setValue:#"League1" forKey:#"league"];
[dict setValue:#"player" forKey:#"section"];
[dict setValue:#"stats" forKey:#"sub_category"];
// Get desired URL like this
NSArray *arr = [[dict allValues] sortedArrayUsingSelector:#selector(localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:)];
NSString *strURL = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"https://www.thefootballapi/%#/%#/%#/%#", [arr objectAtIndex:0], [arr objectAtIndex:1], [arr objectAtIndex:2], [arr objectAtIndex:3]];
NSLog(#"%#", strURL);
It will return ULR same as you want : https://www.thefootballapi/football/League1/player/stats