Question

Ok, I basically need to find a way to better manage 100 NSMutableArrays of data.

Like, (I haven’t actually done this) :

NSMutableArray *array1;
NSMutableArray *array2;
NSMutableArray *array3;
//etc..

I need something that has multiple facets, like:

NSMutableCombinationArray *theMassiveArray;

[theMassiveArray addObject:theObject forArray:0 atIndex:0];

In the end I want to do something like this:

//in applicationdidfinishlaunching
loopCount = 0;


- (void) frameTimer:(NSTimer*)timer { //called every second

    startingValue = 0;

    for (int i = 1; i <= 100; i++)
    {
        NSString *dmxValues = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"%@,%@,%@,%@,%@", [DMXChannelArray objectAtIndex:startingValue], [DMXChannelArray objectAtIndex:startingValue+1], [DMXChannelArray objectAtIndex:startingValue+2], [DMXChannelArray objectAtIndex:startingValue+3], [DMXChannelArray objectAtIndex:startingValue+4]];

        [theMassiveArray addObject:dmxValues forArray:i-1 atIndex:loopCount];

        startingValue = startingValue + 5;
    }

    loopCount = loopCount + 1;

}

//NOTE DMXChannelArray is updated in another class with current DMX values from a controller.

So there are 512 channels of DMX, and each array needs to hold 5 channels. It’s a recording app that basically stores 500 DMX channel values at a resolution of one time a second.

How can I do this? What’s the best way to do this? I obviously want to avoid writing 100 NSMutableArrays and doing this all manually.

For reference, when recording is over, the user selects how many groups (of 5 channels) he wants to export, then depending on that number, another for loop will go through the NSMutableCombinationArray and export the final arrays.

Answer 1

Write a wrapper class:

@interface MultiDimensionalMutableArray : NSObject

- (void)insertObject:(id)obj atIndex:(NSUInteger)idx intoArrayAtIndex:(NSUInteger)arrIdx;
- (id)objectAtIndex:(NSUInteger)idx inArrayAtIndex:(NSUInteger)arrIdx;

@end

@implementation MultiDimensionalMutableArray
{
    NSMutableArray * arrays;
}

- (id)init
{
    // init boilerplate

    arrays = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:100];
    for( int i = 0; i < 100; i++ ){
        [arrays addObject:[NSMutableArray array]];
    }

    return self;
}

- (void)insertObject:(id)obj atIndex:(NSUInteger)idx intoArrayAtIndex:(NSUInteger)arrIdx
{
    //TODO: Include appropriate bounds checking
    NSMutableArray * innerArray = [arrays objectAtIndex:arrIdx];
    [innerArray insertObject:obj atIndex:idx];
}

- (id)objectAtIndex:(NSUInteger)idx inArrayAtIndex:(NSUInteger)arrIdx
{
    return [[arrays objectAtIndex:arrIdx] objectAtIndex:idx];
}

@end