Question

Im writing an iPhone app which retrieves data from a web service as XML. If no data is found by the web service, it returns an empty document like

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root_element/>

This data is being parsed and then added to an array and subsequently a table view.

In my -numberOfRowsInSection I have return [self.array count]; But obviously if the document is empty, nothing is added to the array, and i dont get a parse error, but instead get an index out of bounds error. Is there a isDocumentEmpty method or some such means of checking to see if the document has elements?

How else would you suggest i check this? And what way should i use to alert the user? An alert view and then pop the controller?

Thanks.

Answer 1

For how to use NSXMLParser to parse XML data you can check SeismicXML sample application from Apple.

In this application the XML parsing occurs on a background thread and updates the earthquakes Table view with batches of parsed objects.