Question

I have a NSDictionary that contains multiple keys with the same name. Here is the structure:

Dictionary {

    "Text" => "Blah",
    "Text" => "Blah 2",
    "Text" => "Blah 3"

}

So there are three keys with the same name Text. I put the values of Text into a NSMutableArray using:

NSDictionary *notes = [d objectForKey:@"notes"]; //dictionary above
NSMutableArray *notesA = [notes valueForKey:@"Text"];
NSLog(@"%i", notesA.count);

However, when I try to get the number of items in the array, it crashes with the following error:

-[__NSCFString count]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x856c110

Any idea why this is happening? I am able to output the values of the NSMutableArray and see them, but can’t count them.

---

Here is the XML file:

<tickets>
 <text>Blah</text>
 <text>Blah 2</text>
 <text>Blah 3</text>
</tickets>

Notes dictionary output:

(
        {
        text = "Blah";
    },
        {
        text = "Blah 1";
    },
        {
        text = "Blah 2";
    }
)

Answer 1

You are adding NSStrings as objects, not a NSArray.

NSDictionary *notes = [NSDictionray dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[NSMutableArray arrayWithObjetcs:@"Blah",@"Blah 2", @"Blah3"],@"Text",nil];

NSMutableArray *notesA = [notes objectForKey:@"Text"];
NSLog(@"%i", [notesA count]);

As we are using a NSMutableArray, this would be valid too:

NSDictionary *notes = [NSDictionray dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[NSMutableArray array],@"Text",nil];

NSMutableArray *notesA = [notes objectForKey:@"Text"];
[notesA addObject:@"Blah"];
[notesA addObject:@"Blah 2"];
[notesA addObject:@"Blah 3"];
NSLog(@"%i", [notesA count]);

---

BTW:

Dictionary {

    "Text" => "Blah",
    "Text" => "Blah 2",
    "Text" => "Blah 3"

}

This is not a valid NSDictionary structure, as keys have to be unique.

What you want is:

Dictionary {
    "Text" => ["Blah", "Blah 2","Blah 3"]    
}

If you set several objetcs for the same key, the older object will be replaced by the newer.

---

When the parser parses the tickets tag, it should create a array which it uses to add the single texts.

---

(
        {
        text = "Blah";
    },
        {
        text = "Blah 1";
    },
        {
        text = "Blah 2";
    }
)

Your notes object isnt a dictionary. it is an array with 3 dictionaries in it. each has an key text and some blah value.