Question

Is there a way to nicely print dictionaries in XCode during debugging? Selecting print description to console is ugly.

Answer 1

You should use a Category on NSDictionary and override - (NSString *)description.

(This way it automagically applies to all your existing NSDictionaries)

Below is a sample formatting, but you could change it to look like anything you want.

//  NSDictionary+NicePrint.h 
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
@interface NSDictionary (NicePrint)
@end

//  NSDictionary+NicePrint.m
#import "NSDictionary+NicePrint.h"
@implementation NSDictionary (NicePrint)

- (NSString *)description
{
    NSMutableString *output = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
    [self enumerateKeysAndObjectsUsingBlock:^(id key, id obj, BOOL *stop) {
        [output appendFormat:@"%@ => %@\n", key, obj];
    }];

    return [NSString stringWithString:output];
}

@end