Swift parse json to struct - ios

Question

I have a struct like
struct Channel {
var id : Int = 0
var name = ""
}
and I am getting json from URL as
{"channel_list":[{"channel_id":0,"channel_name":"test1"},{"channel_id":0,"channel_name":"test2"}]}
However I am not able to get data as
func parseJson(anyObj:AnyObject) -> Array<Channel>{
var list:Array<Channel> = []
if anyObj is Array<AnyObject> {
var b:Channel = Channel()
for json in anyObj as! Array<AnyObject>{
b.id = (json["channel_id"] as AnyObject? as? Int) ?? 0
b.name = (json["channel_name"] as AnyObject? as? String) ?? ""
list.append(b)
}
}
return list
}
//read code
let anyObj: AnyObject? = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data, options: NSJSONReadingOptions(0),error: nil) as AnyObject?
println(anyObj)
if let myobj=anyObj["channel_list"] as AnyObject {
self.Channellist=self.parseJson(anyObj!)
}
Whats wrong with this?

Answer 1

First, instead of using AnyObject, you should cast the JSON response as a Dictionary: [NSObject:AnyObject] then safe cast the result of anyObj["channel_list"] to an Array of Dictionaries [[NSObject:AnyObject]], because this is your JSON response format.
Then you need to use this type in your parseJSON function. We're also simplifying it while we're at it, because there's no need to do weird castings anymore.
Also, you were passing the wrong argument to your function (you used anyObj instead of myObj).
struct Channel {
var id : Int = 0
var name = ""
}
func parseJson(anyObj: [[NSObject:AnyObject]]) -> Array<Channel>{
var list: Array<Channel> = []
var b: Channel = Channel()
for json in anyObj {
b.id = (json["channel_id"] as? Int) ?? 0
b.name = (json["channel_name"] as? String) ?? ""
list.append(b)
}
return list
}
if let anyObj = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data!, options: NSJSONReadingOptions(0),error: nil) as? [NSObject:AnyObject] {
if let myobj = anyObj["channel_list"] as? [[NSObject:AnyObject]] {
self.Channellist=self.parseJson(myobj)
}
}
There's still room for improvement: you could create an initializer for your Struct, for example, and also create a typealias for the response types, use map to create the list, etc.

Answer 2

Here's how I would do it with Swift 2:
struct Channel {
var id : Int
var name: String
init?(JSON: [NSObject: AnyObject]?) {
guard let channelID = json["channel_id"] as? Int, let channelName = json["channel_name"] as? String
else { name = ""; id = 0; return nil }
name = channelName
id = channelID
}
}
func parseJSON(array: [[NSObject:AnyObject]]) -> [Channel?] {
return array.map { Channel(JSON: $0) }
// If you don't want to return optionals to channel you can do this instead:
// return array.map { Channel(JSON: $0) }.filter { $0 != nil }.map { $0! }
}
// And in the caller
do {
guard let dict = try NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data!, options: []) as? [NSObject : AnyObject]
else { throw NSError(domain ... // Setup error saying JSON wasn't parsed. }
guard let arrayContents = dict["channel_list"] as? [[NSObject:AnyObject]]
else { throw NSError(domain ... // Setup error saying array wasn't found. }
let channels = parseJSON(arrayContents)
}
catch {
print(error)
}