Swift - read plist file to an array?

Question

I have created a mini translation from English words to Spanish words. I would like to use the englishArray.plist instead of my englishArray = ["the cat"] How can I create this?

I have also used a localizable.strings to retrieve the value "the cat" for "el gato" but I would like to retrieve this from englishArray.plist

I started off with this but not sure if I'm on the right path

let path = NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource("englishArray", ofType: "plist") 
let plistEnglishArray = NSArray(contentsOfFile: path!)

Here is the rest of my code:

var englishArray: [String] = ["rainbow", "boots", "heart", "leaf", "umbrella", "tired", "angry", "cry", "the cat" ]


override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.

    self.translateTextField.delegate = self
    picker.delegate = self
    picker.dataSource = self
}

override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
    super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
    // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
}

@IBAction func translateButtonTapped(sender: UIButton) {

    let emptyString = self.translateTextField.text

    if (emptyString!.isEmpty) {

        print("please enter a word")

    }

    for transIndex in englishArray.indices {
        if englishArray[transIndex] == emptyString!.lowercaseString {

            //englishArray

            //translateLabel.text = "\(spanishArray[transIndex])"
            translateLabel.text = NSLocalizedString(emptyString!.lowercaseString, comment:"")


            print(emptyString)
            return

        }
    }
}

Solution 1

Change your root object to Array, then

var myEnglishArray: [String] = []
if let URL = NSBundle.mainBundle().URLForResource("englishArray", withExtension: "plist") {
      if let englishFromPlist = NSArray(contentsOfURL: URL) as? [String] {
        myEnglishArray = englishFromPlist
      }
    }

Solution 2

Swift 4

The absolute simplest way to do this is

    let url = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "Sounds", withExtension: "plist")!
    let soundsData = try! Data(contentsOf: url)
    let myPlist = try! PropertyListSerialization.propertyList(from: soundsData, options: [], format: nil)

The object myPlist is an Array or Dictionary, whichever you used as the base of your plist.

Solution 3

Swift 4

You can use Codable which is pure swift type.

Firstly load Plist file from bundle then use PropertyListDecoder

Complete code -

    func setData() {
        // location of plist file
        if let settingsURL = Bundle.main.path(forResource: "JsonPlist", ofType: "plist") {

            do {
                var settings: MySettings?
                let data = try Data(contentsOf: URL(fileURLWithPath: settingsURL))
                    let decoder = PropertyListDecoder()
                settings = try decoder.decode(MySettings.self, from: data)
                print("array  is \(settings?.englishArray ?? [""])")//prints array  is ["Good morning", "Good afternoon"]


            } catch {
                print(error)
            }
        }
    }
}
struct MySettings: Codable {

    var englishArray: [String]?

    init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
        let values = try decoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
        englishArray = try values.decodeIfPresent([String].self, forKey: .englishArray)

    }
}

Comments

[Leo Dabus]

why don't you just cast your NSArray using conditional cast if let englishArray = NSArray(contentsOfURL: url) as? [String] {

[Leo Dabus]

you don't need an extra array and/or append if let url = NSBundle.mainBundle().URLForResource("englishArray", withExtension: "plist"), englishArray = NSArray(contentsOfURL: url) as? [String] { for word in englishArray { print(word) } }

[Miguel]

is this code placed in viewDidLoad() right? @khuong291

[Leo Dabus]

If you need to convert your array to data you can use keyed archiver

[Sulthan]

I am not really sure why you are converting a [String] array into another [String]. Why not just myEnglishArray = englishFromPlist instead for-in?

[Pontus Ivarsson]

assuming you have this code inside viewDidLoad(), how do you then share the myPlist variable to other files?