Unable to append strings to array while parsing JSON data - ios

Question

I am having difficulties storing the results retrieved from a JSON source data. I have confirmed the ability to print the data retrieved but it was not able to store into my local array.
My end objective is to actually print in a UITableView the results.
Below is the code for my relevant table view controller :
import UIKit
class CommunityActivityTableViewController: UITableViewController {
var displayNameArr = [String]()
var postDateArr = [String]()
var postDetailArr = [String]()
var testArr = ["teaad"]
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
parseJson()
print(self.displayNameArr.count) //returns 0
print(self.postDateArr.count) //returns 0
print(self.postDetailArr.count) //returns 0
print(self.testArr.count)
print("end")
}
override func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
// #warning Incomplete implementation, return the number of sections
return 1
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
// #warning Incomplete implementation, return the number of rows
return self.displayNameArr.count
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
print("3")
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("Cell_activity", forIndexPath: indexPath)
print("hi")
cell.textLabel?.text = "hi"
cell.detailTextLabel?.text = "test"
return cell
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, heightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat {
return UITableViewAutomaticDimension
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, estimatedHeightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat {
return UITableViewAutomaticDimension
}
func makeAttributedString(title title: String, subtitle: String) -> NSAttributedString {
let titleAttributes = [NSFontAttributeName: UIFont.preferredFontForTextStyle(UIFontTextStyleHeadline), NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.purpleColor()]
let subtitleAttributes = [NSFontAttributeName: UIFont.preferredFontForTextStyle(UIFontTextStyleSubheadline)]
let titleString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "\(title)\n", attributes: titleAttributes)
let subtitleString = NSAttributedString(string: subtitle, attributes: subtitleAttributes)
titleString.appendAttributedString(subtitleString)
return titleString
}
func parseJson(){
//MARK: JSON parsing
let requestURL: NSURL = NSURL(string: "<sanitised>")!
let urlRequest: NSMutableURLRequest = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: requestURL)
let session = NSURLSession.sharedSession()
let task = session.dataTaskWithRequest(urlRequest) {
(data, response, error) -> Void in
let httpResponse = response as! NSHTTPURLResponse
let statusCode = httpResponse.statusCode
if (statusCode == 200) {
print("Everyone is fine, file downloaded successfully.")
do{
let json = try NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data!, options:.AllowFragments)
if let results = json["result"] as? [[String: AnyObject]] {
for result in results {
if let lastname = result["last_name"] as? String {
if let postdate = result["timestamp"] as? String {
if let firstname = result["first_name"] as? String {
if let postdetails = result["post_details"] as? String {
let displayname = firstname + " " + lastname
//print(displayname)
self.displayNameArr.append(displayname)
self.postDateArr.append(postdate)
self.postDetailArr.append(postdetails)
self.testArr.append("haha")
}
}
}
}
}
}
}catch {
print("Error with Json: \(error)")
}
}
}
task.resume()}
}
As per the code above the print results of displaynamearr.count and postDateArr.count and postDetailArr.count returned 0 when it should have returned more than 0 as a result of parseJson() method.
I have printed the display name, postgame and post details variables and they all contain data within so the problem does not lie with the extraction of data but the appending of data into the array.
Appreciate any help provided thanks ! Developed on Xcode 7 and Swift 2.2
Sanitised my JSON source due to sensitive nature of information (i have verified the retrieval of information is OK)

Answer 1

dataTaskWithRequest() is an asynchronous data loading. It loads on the background thread ensuring your UI won't freeze up. So your array will be empty when you this will be getting executed and hence your error. You need to a completion handler like so:
func parseJson(completion: (isDone: Bool) -> ()){
///code
for result in results {
if let lastname = result["last_name"] as? String {
if let postdate = result["timestamp"] as? String {
if let firstname = result["first_name"] as? String {
if let postdetails = result["post_details"] as? String {
let displayname = firstname + " " + lastname
//print(displayname)
self.displayNameArr.append(displayname)
self.postDateArr.append(postdate)
self.postDetailArr.append(postdetails)
self.testArr.append("haha")
}
completion(isDone: True)
}
}
Now in viewDidLoad:
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
parseJson(){ success in
if success{
print(self.displayNameArr.count) //returns a value
print(self.postDateArr.count) //returns a value
print(self.postDetailArr.count) //returns a value
print(self.testArr.count) //This wont because I havent added it in the completion handler
print("end")
self.tableView.reloadData()
}
}
}

Answer 2

All of your UI updates run on the main thread. If you do something like
let task = session.dataTaskWithRequest(urlRequest) {
(data, response, error) -> Void in
// ...
}.resume()
you start a task asynchronously on another thread (not the main thread). Your iPhone is doing a network request and this takes some time. So I guess when your cellForRowAtIndexPath delegate method is called you haven't received any data yet. This is the reason you don't see anything.
The easiest solution to this would be to reload the table view once you have received the data. When you're done with all the parsing in your parseJson method (outside of all the loops) simply run:
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {
self.tableView.reloadData()
}
This forces your table view to update. Remember that you have to run code that updates the UI on the main thread. This is what dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {} does.
EDIT: The answer above was to illustrate the problem to you. The more elegant solution would be to use a completion handler like so:
func parseJson(completionHandler: (Bool) -> Void) {
//do all your json parsing.
//....
dispatch_asyc(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {
//run this if you received the data
//implement some kind of if statement that checks if the parsing was successful
completionHandler(true)
//run this if it failed
completionHandler(false)
}
}
In your viewDidLoad you would do something like
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
//...
parseJson() { success in
tableView.reloadData()
if(success) {
print("success")
}
}
}
If you want to display an activity indicator while data is loaded (which I would recommend) it is easier to use a callback as I've just described.