Question

Hi i have some problem parsing the json in IOS. This is the json data.

{
"app_info": [
    {
        "app_name": "haka",
        "sync_protocol_version": "1"
    }
],
"updates": [
    {
        "timestamp": "Sat Apr 21 13:04:08 IST 2012",
        "people": [
            {
                "personal_info": [
                    {
                        "first_name": "phlox",
                        "last_name": "",
                        "employee_id": "010",
                        "gender": "-",
                        "marital_status": "-",
                        "nationality": "Denobulan",
                        "dob": "re-23",
                        "photo": "http://c.cc/users/010/profile/image"
                    }
                ],
                "contact_details": [
                    {
                        "address": [
                            {
                                "street": "#1, this way",
                                "city": "tank",
                                "state": "sick bay",
                                "zip": "0978",
                                "country": "Enterprise"
                            }
                        ],
                        "telephone": [
                            {
                                "work": "010",
                                "mobile": "010",
                                "home": "010"
                            }
                        ],
                        "email": [
                            {
                                "work": "[e-mail]",
                                "personal": ""
                            }
                        ]
                    }
                ],
                "emergency": [
                    {
                        "contact": [
                            {
                                "name": "-",
                                "relationship": "",
                                "telephone": [
                                    {
                                        "work": "",
                                        "home": "",
                                        "mobile": ""
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ],
                        "blood_group": ""
                    }
                ],
                "categorization": [
                    {
                        "designation": "",
                        "department": "",
                        "location": "",
                        "joining_date": ""
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "personal_info": [
                    {
                        "first_name": "",
                        "last_name": "",
                        "employee_id": "",
                        "gender": "",
                        "marital_status": "",
                        "nationality": "",
                        "dob": "",
                        "photo": ""
                    }
                ],
                "contact_details": [
                    {
                        "address": [
                            {
                                "street": "",
                                "city": "",
                                "state": "",
                                "zip": "",
                                "country": ""
                            }
                        ],
                        "telephone": [
                            {
                                "work": "",
                                "mobile": "",
                                "home": ""
                            }
                        ],
                        "email": [
                            {
                                "work": "",
                                "personal": ""
                            }
                        ]
                    }
                ],
                "emergency": [
                    {
                        "contact": [
                            {
                                "name": "",
                                "relationship": "",
                                "telephone": [
                                    {
                                        "work": "",
                                        "home": "",
                                        "mobile": ""
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ],
                        "blood_group": ""
                    }
                ],
                "categorization": [
                    {
                        "designation": "",
                        "department": "",
                        "location": "",
                        "joining_date": ""
                    }
                ]
            }
        ],
        "messages": [
            {
                "sender": "Archer<[e-mail]>",
                "sender_role": "admin",
                "message_type": "broadcast",
                "message": "parking space up for grabs",
                "message_recipients": "all",
                "reply_permitted": "0"
            }
        ],
        "events": [
            {
                "creator": "Travis<[e-mail]>",
                "event_title": "",
                "event_description": "",
                "event_time_start": "",
                "event_time_end": "",
                "location": "",
                "invitees": [
                    {
                        "id": "020",
                        "acceptance": "1"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ],
        "settings": [
            {
                "sync_frequency": "0"
            }
        ]
    }
]}

This is a valid json format. I have checked it with http://jsonlint.com/ and using http://braincast.nl/samples/jsoneditor/

see the structure of json value.According to structure the people tag should return count of 2, as it has 2 objects, but it is returning only 1 while parsing.
I am completely out of options. Please help guys.

This is the code i am using for parsing

NSString *textPAth = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"sync" ofType:@"json"];
NSError *error;
NSString *content = [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:textPAth encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:&error];    
NSArray *jsonArray = [[content JSONValue] retain]; 
NSLog(@"JSON ARRAY   %@   AND COUNT  %d",[[jsonArray valueForKey:@"updates"] valueForKey:@"people"],[[[jsonArray valueForKey:@"updates"] valueForKey:@"people"]  count]);

Answer 1

I’m not sure why every dictionary is wrapped with an array, when there is only 1 entry (unnecessary), but if you want to parse it you’d want something like this:

NSDictionary *jsonDict = [[content JSONValue] retain];
NSArray *updatesArray = [jsonDict objectForKey:@"updates"];
NSDictionary *updatesDict = [updatesArray objectAtIndex:0];
NSArray *peopleArray = [updatesDict objectForKey:@"people"];
NSLog(@"People count: %i", [peopleArray count]);
for (NSDictionary *peopleDict in peopleArray) {
    //do something
}

As a side note, if this is your JSON, you’ll want to remove the [arrays] for entries that are not actually arrays. While you can still parse it, it means you’ll have to read the array first then get the dictionary from the objectAtIndex:0, which is totally inefficient and pointless.