Swift automatically creating temporary dictionaries - ios

Question

I'm working with a datasource for a UITableView where I need an array with dictionaries.
I tried making an array, and filling it with dictionaries in a for loop like this.
temporaryDataDict = [:]
temporaryDataDict = ["name":stockName, "ticker":ticker, "lastPrice":lastPrice, "purchasePrice":purchasePrice, "weight":weight, "daysHeld":daysHeld]
temporaryDataArray.append(temporaryDataDict)
But of course, when I start filling my tableView with the dataSource. I end up for 23 of the exact same dictionaries (the last one in the for loop).
This is of course, because it's changing the dictionary every time.
I havn't been able to find a way to keep the data in the dictionaries, or programatically make a new dictionary every time (since they need a new name otherwise it'll overwrite the data).
So how can I programatically make dictionaries everytime a for loop runs, then get the keys & values of these dictionaries?
or am I going about this completely wrong?
If it helps, here's the kind of data I'm working with.
I have a stock (or item) with 6 properties. So I think it makes the most sense to have an array where every item in the array is the "stock" as a dictionary that contains the 6 properties.
So is it possible to make swift automatically create these dictionaries for me? Since I don't know the amount of dictionaries needed.
PS.
I know this is what CoreData is for. I'm using these arrays and Dictionaries to later fill in my CoreData.
If the above isn't possible I am aware that I can probably create a new CoreData entity to accomplish what I want, but it doesn't seem like the best way to go about it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Answer 1

I don't believe that a dictionary is the best sort of data structure to use in this case. Since typically a dictionary is composed of a unique key and a value.
I have edited this answer. Originally I suggested creating a class containing a property for each record field. Then I figured that this could be done using a tuple via a typealias for each record. Using a typealias gets around an issue related to creating arrays of tuples.
ETA: However please read the comments because Zaph who knows more about this than me reckons that using a Class is a stronger solution.
This is my tuple based solution. Most of what follows is just about quickly creating some dummy data:
typealias StockRecord = (stockName:String, ticker: String, lastPrice: Double, purchasePrice: Double, weight: Double, daysHeld: Int)
var temporaryDataArray = [StockRecord]()
// use a loop to create dummy records and add each to the array
// rough and ready - just to test the solution
var loopCounter: Int
for loopCounter = 0; loopCounter <= 23; loopCounter++ {
//some dummy field values for each record
var stockName = "stockName" + ("\(loopCounter)")
var ticker = "ticker" + ("\(loopCounter)")
var lastPrice = Double(loopCounter)
var purchasePrice = Double(loopCounter)
var weight = Double(loopCounter)
var daysHeld = loopCounter
var newRecord = (stockName, ticker, lastPrice, purchasePrice, weight, daysHeld)
temporaryDataArray.append(newRecord)
}
ETA: Iterate over the array - eg:
for recordEntry in temporaryDataArray {
var a = recordEntry.stockName
var b = recordEntry.ticker
// etc
}
Or with enumeration - eg:
for (count,recordEntry) in enumerate(temporaryDataArray) {
println("\(count) \(recordEntry)")
}
Output:
0 (stockName0, ticker0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0)
1 (stockName1, ticker1, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1)
2 (stockName2, ticker2, 2.0, 2.0, 2.0, 2)
3 (stockName3, ticker3, 3.0, 3.0, 3.0, 3)
etc