set variable to 'YES' for each edited Textfield using UIControlEventEditingChanged - ios

Question

I want to keep track of edited textfields. I would like to store every edited textfield in a variable. Then when the user press the 'save' button it updates the edited textfield in the database.
I want to know how i can, in "(void)textChanged:' specify what textfield is being changed and then store it in a variable (array?). Then i want to pick out the edited textfield names from the array and execute a -(void).
Example:
* testTextfield gets edited.
* Add the edited textfieldname and store it in an Array
* Extract the edited textfields from the array
* Execute a -(Void) with the edited textfields
.h file:
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSMutableArray *allEditedTextfields;
.m file:
[testTextField addTarget:self action:#selector(textChanged:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventEditingChanged];
Here i want to identify what textfield got edited and store it in the Array.
-(void)textChanged:(UITextField *)textField
{
[allEditedTextfields addObject:textField.text];
}
This is when i press the 'save' button:
-(IBAction)btnSaveHorse:(id)sender{
NSLog(#"Array - %#", allEditedTextfields);
}
And when i press the save button it says (Array - (null))
-(void)textChanged: will be executed everytime a new letter or number is being typed.
Please help me!

Answer 1

First off, you probably don't want to add an object to an array each time something is typed in a text field. What you might want to do is use an NSMutableDictionary to store values for each text field.
You could give each text field a unique tag either in the interface file or in code using:
yourObject.tag = 1; //Or whatever
Then, you'd need an NSMutableDictionary. You must initialize the dictionary (I'm assuming you didn't initialize your array, which is why you were getting (null)).
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSMutableDictionary *allEditedTextfields; //.h
allEditedTextfields = [NSMutableDictionary new]; //viewDidLoad of .m
Then, inside your textChanged: function, use the tag as the key of a NSNumber-wrapped boolean indicating that your text field has been edited. This will also ensure that there aren't any duplicates (it'll overwrite anything at the existing key if there is anything):
-(void)textChanged:(UITextField *)textField
{
[allEditedTextfields setObject:#TRUE forKey:#(textField.tag)];
}
Lastly, whenever you're ready to upload your data to a database, just loop through the dictionary and use viewWithTag to get the text field.
for (NSNumber *key in allEditedTextfields) { //Loop through all keys
if ([[dict objectForKey:key] boolValue] == TRUE) { //See if it was edited
UITextField *tField = (UITextField *)[self.view viewWithTag:[key intValue]];
//save your data using tField.text
}
}
[allEditedTextfields removeAllObjects]; //Remove the objects when you're done so it doesn't upload the same ones next time unless they're edited again