Parsing JSON in iOS, inner dictionaries - ios

Question

I am new to JSON and iOS, I have some json data that I want to load into an array,
This is the json data
{
"items": [
{
"name": "abc",
"description": "cheeseburger",
},
{
"name": "def",
"description": "ostrichburger",
},
{
"name": "zxc",
"description": "sh1tjustgotreal",
},
{
"name": "scfs",
"description": "mylifeforaiur",
}
]
}
Now I keep on getting dictionaries with dictionaries? Why is that?
On another note, If I can modify the structure of this json cos I really just want to access the inner nodes ( abc, def ) what would I change in it to make it simpler for me and others to use it? Can I get rid of the "items" node?

Answer 1

When the data on the sender's end is structured as a collection of named fields, you get back a dictionary for each group of named fields. In this particular case, it looks like the outermost object has one field, which is a collection (i.e. a list or an array) of objects that each have a name and description. In other words, the sender sends you something like this:
#interface Item
#property (readwrite, copy) NSString* name;
#property (readwrite, copy) NSString* description;
#end
#interface MyObject
// This array contains objects of type Item
#property (readwrite) NSArray *items;
#end