Loading content from plist to NSDictionary not working - ios

Question

I have a rather large plist that I am trying to load data from. Here is an example of the plist, but there are 580 records so I can't put them all here:
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
<dict>
<key>Grave #</key>
<string></string>
<key>Last Name</key>
<string>?</string>
<key>First Name</key>
<string>Ada Lou daughter of</string>
<key>Dates</key>
<string>?-? Unable to read stone</string>
<key>Notes</key>
<string></string>
<key></key>
<string></string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Grave #</key>
<string></string>
<key>Last Name</key>
<string>?</string>
<key>First Name</key>
<string>Stone w/ Cherokee syllabry and also in english says: Here we rest</string>
<key>Dates</key>
<string></string>
<key>Notes</key>
<string></string>
<key></key>
<string></string>
</dict>
I have my property in my .h file
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSDictionary *graves;
Synthesized in my .m file:
#synthesize graves;
Here is my code that loads the file in my view did load function:
NSString *file = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"RossCemeteryList" ofType:#"plist"];
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
if ([fileManager fileExistsAtPath:file]) {
NSLog(#"The file exists");
} else {
NSLog(#"The file does not exist");
}
graves = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:file];
NSLog(#"%i", [graves count]);
The NSLog messages says it finds the file, the there are 0 rows in the second NSLog message. I can try to spit out the contents graves using "NSLog (#"%#", graves);" and it returns NULL.
I am a little lost. Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

You are trying to create an NSDictionary object and initialize it from the contents of that plist while that plist actually contains an NSArray as its root object. You need to change your NSDictionary into an NSArray or NSMutableArray.

Answer 2

I don't know if you're still looking for a solution, but this code should allow you to load a plist file and determine the type of its contents:
// load a Property List ("plist") file (fully-qualified path) into a generic object, if
// it's available...
- ( NSObject * ) testLoadPListData: ( NSString * const ) plistPath
{
// load the file data into a raw data object...
NSData * const data = [ NSData dataWithContentsOfFile: plistPath ];
// fields returned from property list creation...
NSPropertyListFormat fmt = 0;
NSError * err = nil;
// load the file data into a serialized property list object...
NSPropertyListSerialization * plist = [ NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListWithData: data
options: NSPropertyListImmutable
format: &fmt
error: &err
];
// if there was an error creating the serialized object...
NSString * const errorText = err ? [ err description ] : nil;
if ( errorText )
{
// log the error string...
NSLog( #"error while reading data from file \"%#\": %#"
, plistPath
, errorText
);
} // end error creating serialized object
#if defined( DEBUG )
//////////////////////////////
// //
// DEBUG PURPOSES ONLY... //
// //
//////////////////////////////
// if this file is in a format that can be readily translated into one of our target data types...
if ( plist )
{
// if this property list file contains a dictionary...
if ( [ plist isKindOfClass: [ NSDictionary class ] ] )
{
// dump the contents of the dictionary to the debug output window...
NSDictionary * const dict = ( NSDictionary * )( plist );
__CCLOG( #"<Dictionary>%#\n</Dictionary>", dict );
} // end is dictionary plist file
// if this property list file contains an array...
else if ( [ plist isKindOfClass: [ NSArray class ] ] )
{
// dump the contents of the array to the debug output window...
NSArray * const arr = ( NSArray * )( plist );
__CCLOG( #"<Array>%#</Array>", arr );
} // end is array plist file
} // end valid file format
#endif // defined( DEBUG )
return plist;
} // end testLoadPListData