I am busy converting to Swift and am trying to figure out how to do the following in Swift
NSArray arrayOfStrings1 = {#"Substring1", #"Substring2", nil};
Dictionary dict = {#"MainString1", arrayOfStrings1};
So in Swift I have the following:
var dictionary = [String: Array<String>]() // is this correct ??
var array: [String] = ["Substring1", "Substring2"]
dictionary["MainString1"] = ["Substring1.1", "Substring1.2"]
dictionary["MainString2"] = ["Substring2.1", "Substring2.2"]
Now in order to access the array I use
let array = dictionary["MainString1"]
let item0 = array[0]
but this fails with a compiler error which seems to indicate that array is in fact a String not an array of strings.
What am I missing here?
The issue is actually that a subscript lookup for a Dictionary in Swift returns an optional value:
This is a pretty great feature - you can't be guaranteed that the key you're looking for necessarily corresponds to a value. So Swift makes sure you know that you might not get a value from your lookup.
This differs a little bit from subscript behavior for an Array, which will always return a value. This is a semantically-driven decision - it's common in languages for dictionary lookups to return null if there is no key - but if you try to access an array index that does not exist (because it's out of bounds), an exception will be thrown. This is how Swift guarantees you'll get a value back from an array subscript: Either you'll get one, or you'll have to catch an exception. Dictionaries are a little more lenient - they're "used to" not having the value you're asking for.
As a result, you can use optional binding to only use the item if it actually has a value, like so:
if let theArray = dictionary["MainString1"] {
let item0 = theArray[0]
} else {
NSLog("There was no value for key 'MainString1'")
}
Related
I have an NSDictionary that has a key like messageID5 and the value has three key/value pairs.
I know the NSDictionary only has 1 value in it because I limited my query to 1. But I don't know the name of the key. I just want the value, but I can't access it like an array [0]. You can access it just fine in PHP or Python. I've been trying a lot of different solutions for this basic problem, but a lot of them seem overly messy. anyValue[0] gives me a type error.
If you don't know your dictionary keys, you can get your NSDictionary allKeys.first property or allValues.first:
let dict = NSDictionary(dictionary: ["a":["b":1]])
let subDict = dict[dict.allKeys.first] as? [String:Any] ?? [:] // ["b": 1]
// or
let subDict = dict.allValues.first as? [String:Any] ?? [:] // ["b": 1]
The first thing to acknowledge is that key/value pairs in dictionaries does not maintain any specific order - this is required for an optimization in access to the contents of this structure.
As for your case if you're 100% sure you'll have only one value inside your dictionary you can use .allValues.first to retrieve the contained value. If your know that the type of your value is NSDictionary the whole code may look like this:
let childDictionary = rootDictionary.allValues.first as? NSDictionary
I suggest using (dictionary as Dictionary).values.first. That returns an optional, since it can fail if the dictionary is empty.
(Note that I edited this answer to cast the dictionary from an NSDictionary to a Dictionary so you an use the values property. NSDictionary doesn't have a values property, but Dictionary does.)
I'm getting the error message Argument labels '(of:)' do not match any available overloads. Below is the code I'm using.
let prefs = UserDefaults.standard
var id: String!
if var array = prefs.string(forKey: "myArray"){
if let index = array.index(of: id) {
array.remove(at: index)
prefs.setValue(array, forKey: "myArray")
}
}
I've seen a lot of answers on Stack Overflow with very similar code to that. So I'm not quite sure why this wouldn't be working.
Basically I'm just trying to remove the element in the array that = id then set that new array to the user defaults.
Update
Just updated the code above to show how array is getting defined. id is a string that is defined in a separate section.
By accessing prefs.string(forKey: "myArray"), you are getting a String, not an array of strings. You should use this:
if var prefs.array(forKey: "myArray") as? [String] { }
or
if var prefs.value(forKey: "myArray") as? [String] { }
Make sure to not forget putting as! [String], because the first method returns [Any], an which can contain objects of any type, not specifically String. Then your error should be solved, because index(of: ) can only be used on Arrays of specified types.
Hope it helps!
Just make an alt + Click on an "array" variable to make sure it is of type Array ([String]), not a String. To apply .index(of:) method it must be an array.
Like this:
String does not have a method .index(of:). That's what the error is pointing at. And sure make a cast to [String]? if it fits.
I can make a Facebook SDK Graph Request to get a user's likes, but I'm having trouble taking the returned values and storing one of the keys in an array of Strings. The request returns an NSDictionary of keys/values. Then, using objectForKey I can get the data key which returns what I want: the id and name of the "liked" page on Facebook.
Data returns elements like this:
{
id = 486379781543416;
name = "Star Wars Movies";
},
I specifically want only the "name" of all of these objects and to throw them into an array [String]. I tried to loop through the objects but I'm getting error ambiguous use of subscript. Here's the relevant code:
request.startWithCompletionHandler{(connection:FBSDKGraphRequestConnection!, result:AnyObject!, error:NSError!) -> Void in
let resultdict = result as! NSDictionary
let likes = resultdict.objectForKey("data") as! NSArray
print("Found \(likes.count) likes")
print(likes)
for object in likes{
let name = object["name"] as! String //error: ambiguous use of subsript
print(name)
}
}
After doing some research it looks like the issue is with the NSArray and that I should instead use Swift data types. I tried casting it to a Swift array but I got different errors.
What's the best way to handle this error?
Thanks!
update: Here is what the facebook API request returns:
{
data = (
{
id = 111276025563005;
name = "Star Wars (film)";
},
{
id = 115061321839188;
name = "Return of the Jedi";
}
);
paging = {
cursors = {
after = MTE1MDYxMzIxODM5MTg4;
before = Mjc0NzYzODk2MTg4NjY5;
};
next = "https://graph.facebook.com/v2.5/10155262562690368/likes?access_token=<redacted>";
};
}
You should always use the native Swift collection types wherever possible as NSArray and NSDictionary are really type-inspecific, and therefore can easily trigger "ambiguous use of subscript" errors.
You'll also want to avoid force down-casting, in case you receive data that's in the wrong format, or no data at all. This situation would be more elegantly handled with a guard, in order to prevent a crash. If your program depends on the force down-casting succeeding, and therefore should crash – then you can always call fatalError in the guard, with a descriptive error message in order to assist you in debugging the problem.
If I understand your data structure correctly, the request returns an AnyObject that should be a [String:AnyObject] (A dictionary of strings to any objects). In the case of the "data" key, the AnyObject value is then a [[String:AnyObject]] (An array of dictionaries of strings to any objects).
Therefore you'll want to do your casting in two stages. First, using a conditional downcast on your result to cast it as a [String:AnyObject]. If this fails, then the else clause of the guard will be executed and the code will return. You'll then want to get out your "data" value (your 'likes' array), and conditionally downcast it to a [[String:AnyObject]]. Both of these statements will handle the possibility of resultDict or resultDict["data"] being nil.
guard let resultDict = result as? [String:AnyObject] else {return}
guard let likes = resultDict["data"] as? [[String:AnyObject]] else {return}
You can put whatever error handling logic you want in the brackets of these statements to handle cases in which the results dictionary doesn't exist, was the wrong format, or there wasn't a 'likes' array in it.
You can then get an array of 'like' names through using flatMap.
let likeNames = likes.flatMap{$0["name"] as? String}
This will create an array of the like names of each dictionary – if the like names don't exist or aren't strings, then they won't be added. Because the compiler knows for certain that likes is a [[String:AnyObject]] – there's no ambiguity in subscripting its elements.
If you want a more general approach such as you're doing in your question, you can use a guard statement within a for loop.
for object in likes {
guard let name = object["name"] as? String else {continue}
print(name)
}
Again, you can put whatever error handling you wish in the brackets of the guard.
This is what I am trying to do with the dictionary:
if let deliveries = dictionary["deliveries"] as? NSDictionary {
var castedDeliveries = [Double: Double]()
for delivery in deliveries {
if let value = delivery.value as? Double {
castedDeliveries[Double(delivery.key as! NSNumber)] = value //Could not cast value of type 'NSTaggedPointerString' (0x1a1e3af20) to 'NSNumber' (0x1a1e458b0).
}
}
settings!.deliveries = castedDeliveries
}
And this is what I try to cast, as a part of JSON response from server:
deliveries = {
2 = 0;
5 = "2.59";
7 = "3.59";
};
It doesnt work, because there is an error at commented line:
Could not cast value of type 'NSTaggedPointerString' (0x1a1e3af20) to 'NSNumber' (0x1a1e458b0).
You are trying to cast dictionary directly but instead you need to cast each key - value pair. If you want generic solution to this problem take a look at SwiftyJSON library which address JSON parsing problem for you.
Casting doens't mean data transformation from a type to another.
Your dictionary seems to be composed by Integer keys and String values.
If you want to transform in something else you ca use the map function.
let converted = deliveries.map{[Double($0) : Double($1)]}
But pay attention.
Here we are saying, iterate over the dictionary (in the $0 there is the dictionary key in the $1 there is the value) and create a new dictionary that has as a key a Double initialized at the key value and as a new value a Double initialized as the old dictionary value. The last conversion can fail, so the returned data is an optional.
As I noted in the comments, this isn't casting. You want a data conversion. You need to do that explicitly, especially in this case since it might fail.
Looking at the error, I think you really have a dictionary of [String:String] here (in NSDictionary form). That suggests the JSON is badly encoded, but such is life. Assuming that dictionary looks something like this:
let dictionary: NSDictionary = ["deliveries": ["2":"0", "5": "2.59", "7": "3.59"]]
You would convert it to [Double:Double] like this:
if let jsonDeliveries = dictionary["deliveries"] as? [String:String] {
var deliveries: [Double: Double] = [:]
for (key, value) in jsonDeliveries {
if let keyDouble = Double(key),
valueDouble = Double(value) {
deliveries[keyDouble] = valueDouble
}
}
// Use deliveries
}
This silently ignores any values that can't be converted to Double. If you would rather generate errors, use a guard let rather than an if let.
I am having a devil of a time trying to work with Dictionaries in Swift. I have created the following Dictionary of Dictionaries but I am unable to unpack it.
var holeDictionary = Dictionary<String,Dictionary<String,Dictionary<String,Int>>>()
I can get the first Dictionary out with:
var aDictionary = holeDictionary["1"]
But trying to access the next Dictionary within it gives me an error as follows:
var bDictionary = aDictionary["key"] // [String : Dictionary<String, Int>]?' does not have a member named 'subscript'
I know what the contents of the Dictionaries are and can verify them with a println(aDictionary). So how can I get to the Dictionaries buried deeper down?
The key subscript on Dictionary returns an optional, because the key-value pair may or may not exist in the dictionary.
You need to use an if-let binding or force unwrap the optional before you can access it to subscript it further:
if let aDictionary = holeDictionary["1"] {
let bDictionary = aDictionary["key"]
}
Edit, to add forced unwrap example:
If you're sure that the key "1" exists, and you're okay with assert()ing at runtime if the key doesn't exist, you can force-unwrap the optional like this:
let bDictionary = holeDictionary["1"]!["key"]
And if you're sure that the key "key" will exist, you'd do this instead:
let bDictionary = holeDictionary["1"]!["key"]!
Accordingly to the swift documentation:
Because it is possible to request a key for which no value exists,
a dictionary’s subscript returns an optional value of the dictionary’s
value type
When you retrieve an item from a dictionary you have an optional value returned. The correct way to handle your case is:
var holeDictionary = Dictionary<String,Dictionary<String,Dictionary<String,Int>>>()
if let aDictionary = holeDictionary["1"] {
var bDictionary = aDictionary["key"]
}