Question

It seems like i have a logical problem in this loop. I am trying to:

• Looping myKeys (from a dict) to find selected players
• Setting three BOOL parameters for the selected players (YES or NO) in an NSMutableArray (thePlayers)
• Updating a dict (selectedPlayerDict) with ‘thePlayers’ and ‘myKeys’
• Empty thePlayers and do a new loop and the same thing

The individual players, when i select each player separately has the following parameters:

selectedPlayerDict:{Hannah = (0,0,1);}

selectedPlayerDict: {
AAAXXX = (
1,
1,
1
);
}

When is select both, meaning the trigger on (if ([theObjects objectAtIndex:3] == [NSNumber numberWithBool:YES])), i get the following result with

selectedPlayerDict: {
AAAXXX = (
0,
0,
1,
1,
1,
1
);
Hannah = (
0,
0,
1,
1,
1,
1
);
}

For the result above i use:

//[thePlayers removeAllObjects]; //<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

When i change and remove the commentary “//”:

[thePlayers removeAllObjects]; //<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I get the following result:

selectedPlayerDict: {
AAAXXX = (
);
Hannah = (
);
}

The code i use is:

for (NSString *myKeys in allTheKeys) {
    theObjects = [playerDict valueForKey:myKeys];

    if ([theObjects objectAtIndex:3] == [NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]) {

        //[thePlayers addObject:myKeys]; 

        NSLog(@"Spelare: %@ är vald", myKeys);
        NSLog(@">>>><<<<");

        // Check what difficulties level
        if ([theObjects objectAtIndex:0] == [NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]) { //hard
            NSLog(@"Player have diff HARD");
            [thePlayers addObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]]; //@"YES"];
        }
        else {
            NSLog(@"Player have NOT diff HARD");
            [thePlayers addObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:NO]]; //@"NO"];
        }
        if ([theObjects objectAtIndex:1] == [NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]) { //medium
            NSLog(@"Player have diff MEDIUM");
            [thePlayers addObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]]; //@"YES"];
        }
        else {
            NSLog(@"Player have NOT diff MEDIUM");
            [thePlayers addObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:NO]]; //@"NO"];
        }
        if ([theObjects objectAtIndex:2] == [NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]) { //easy
            NSLog(@"Player have diff EASY");
            [thePlayers addObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]]; //@"YES"];
        }
        else {
            NSLog(@"Player have NOT diff EASY");
            [thePlayers addObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:NO]]; //@"NO"];
        }
        [selectedPlayerDict setValue:thePlayers forKey:myKeys];
        [thePlayers removeAllObjects];   //<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
    }

}
NSLog(@"selectedPlayerDict: %@", selectedPlayerDict);

I know i probably do something wrong here with the logic but i have tried now for hours to try to understand what i am doing wrong. I do not understand why the dic’s objects is empty as i am “removeAllObjects” in the array in the end of the loop after i have updated the dict? I have tried “setObject:forKey:” but with no luck.

Answer 1

The problem is that you are reusing the same array for every key in selectedPlayerDict. You would need to create a fresh array for each loop iteration; otherwise, the removeAllObjects is removing all objects from the single array that is the value for every key in your dictionary.

As a side note, I wonder if an enum {Easy, Medium, Hard}; might serve your need better than 3 BOOLs — what will happen if the user selects > 1 of the options?