Question

I have a class (USER) which has the following properties (NSString name, NSString address, NSMutableArray tags). The tags property is an NSMutableArray of (TAG) – TAG is a class defined as (NSNumber tagId, NSString tagName).

I have tried a few different ways to access the tagName and tagId however have been unsuccessful.

Example code 1 below:

Tag *tag = [[Tag alloc] init];
for(NSInteger n = 0; n < [thisSpotTag count]; n++)
{
    NSLog(@"%@", [thisSpotTag objectAtIndex:n]);
}

Example code 2 below:

NSEnumerator *enumerator = [thisSpotTag objectEnumerator];
NSString *tname = nil;
while((tname = [enumerator nextObject]))
{
    NSLog(@"%@", tname);
}

In both examples, I get the memory address of the tag, but not the value of the tagName and tagId.

How do I access this information?

PS – I am using xCode 4.2 with ARC.

---

Update on my question below:

I’m back, and tried a few of the suggested fixes below however I still cannot get the data out of the array. Remember, I have an array of objects in which each object contains an array of objects.

I have this code for example:

NSEnumerator *enumerator = [thisUser.tags objectEnumerator];
Tag *tagObj = [[Tag alloc] init];    
while(tagObj = [enumerator nextObject])
{
    NSLog(@"enumerated tag id:%@ name:%@", tagObj.tid, tagObj.name);
}

I never make it into the while loop in the code above…

thisUser.tag is the TAG object for portion of a USER object. Perhaps typing out what the array looks like would help explain the nesting.

NSMutableArray(               "this is an NSMutableArray of USER objects"
    element 0 =>  USER Object 1
        USER.name is an NSString
        USER.address is an NSString
        USER.tag              "this is an NSMutableArray of TAG objects"
            element 0 => TAG Object 1
                TAG.tagId is an NSNumber
                TAG.tagName is an NSString
            element 1 => TAG Object 2
               ...etc...
    element 1 => USER Object 2
        ...etc...

Answer 1

Try casting then accessing the properties:

[(Tag *)[array objectAtIndex:i] tagId];
[(Tag *)[array objectAtIndex:i] tagName];

Or, for fast enumeration (better), do

(Tag *)tag = [enumerator nextObject];
tag.tagId;
tag.tagName;

For an NSMutableArray of Users, you need to cast like this:

User *user = (User *)[array objectAtIndex:i];
Tag *tag = (Tag *)[user.tags objectAtIndex:j];

Now you can simply call properties:

tag.tagId;
tag.tagName;

Remember that whenever you are using an NSMutableArray or NSArray with custom objects, all you need to do is to tell the compiler what type the object is. Then everything will work as you expect.

Here’s an example for your case, starting with NSMutableArray *usersArray of Users:

for (int i=0; i<usersArray.count; ++i) {
    User *user = (User *)[usersArray objectAtIndex:i];
    NSLog(@"Name: %@\n",user.name);
    NSLog(@"Address: %@\n",user.address);
    NSLog(@"Tags: \n");
    for (int j=0; j<[user.tags count]; ++j) {
        NSLog(@"ID: %@", (Tag *)[[user.tags objectAtIndex:j] tagID]);
        NSLog(@"Name: %@", (Tag *)[[user.tags objectAtIndex:j] tagName]);
    }
    [user release];
}