Question

I am writing an app that copies a plist into the docsdir and then reads it into a mutable array. The code below, however, returns a count of 0 for the array. The line with the dictionary log, however, returns the correct items. I have also verified that the file is being copied to the docsdir.

-(NSString *)docsDir {
    return [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) objectAtIndex:0];
}


- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    NSString *listPath = [[self docsDir]stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"list.plist"];
    if (![[NSFileManager defaultManager]fileExistsAtPath:listPath]) {
        [[NSFileManager defaultManager]copyItemAtPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle]pathForResource:@"list" ofType:@"plist"] toPath:listPath error:nil];
        NSLog(@"Chicken");
    }

    NSLog(@"%@", [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:listPath]);
    _array = [NSArray arrayWithContentsOfFile:listPath];

    NSLog(@"Count: %i", [_array count]);

}

- (void)viewDidUnload
{
    [super viewDidUnload];
    / / Release any retained subviews of the main view.
}

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{
    return (interfaceOrientation != UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown);
}

Answer 1

Usually this is because by default root element in plist files is a Dictionary.

Right click and select Open as Source Code, your file may look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>foo</key>
    <array>
        <string>foo1</string>
        <string>foo2</string>
        <string>foo3</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

where the root element is a dict, change it to:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
    <string>foo1</string>
    <string>foo2</string>
    <string>foo3</string>
</array>
</plist>

where the root element is an array. You can now edit as usual.