parsing NSMutableDictionary with required format - objective-c

Question

I have an objective C object 'Obj' with an
#property (strong, nonatomic) NSMutableDictionary *obj;
This gets populated with data from an api in following format.
{
0 = ( 0, "7.00", "8.59”, ”15.00”, ”16.59", "19.00", "20.59 );
1 = ( 1, "7.00", "8.59”, ”15.00”, ”16.59", "19.00", "20.59 );
2 = ( 2, "7.00", "8.59”, ”15.00”, ”16.59", "19.00", "20.59 );
3 = ( 3, "7.00", "8.59”, ”15.00”, ”16.59", "19.00", "20.59 );
4 = ( 4, "7.00", "8.59”, ”15.00”, ”16.59", "19.00", "20.59 );
5 = ( 5, "7.00", "8.59”, ”15.00”, ”16.59", "19.00", "20.59 );
6 = ( 6, "7.00", "8.59”, ”15.00”, ”16.59", "19.00", "20.59 );
}
I need to parse the data and send it back as an array in following format.
`{
[ 0, 7, 00, 8, 59 ],
[0, 15, 00, 16, 59] ,
[0, 19, 00, 20, 59] ,
[ 1, 7, 00, 8, 59 ],
[1, 15, 00, 16, 59] ,
[1, 19, 00, 20, 59],
……
……
[ 6, 7, 00, 8, 59 ],
[6, 15, 00, 16, 59] ,
[6, 19, 00, 20, 59]
}`
Where 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 are days and rest of the information is hours and mins. so for each slot, the format is
`[day, from_hour, from_min, to_hour, to_min],
[0, 7, 0, 8, 59],`
A day could have multiple slots or just one slot.
So far I manage to run a loop and separate each day's record as below.
NSMutableArray *elementArray =[[NSMutableArray alloc ]init];
NSMutableArray *results =[[NSMutableArray alloc ]init];
NSInteger starthour = 0 ;
NSInteger startmin = 0 ;
NSInteger endhour = 0 ;
NSInteger endmin = 0 ;
NSMutableArray *temp = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
NSString *string;
int i = 0;
for ( i = 0; i <=6; i ++){
string = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",i];
elementArray =[Obj.obj valueForKey:string];
starthour = [[elementArray objectAtIndex:1]integerValue];
startmin =([[elementArray objectAtIndex:1]floatValue]-[[elementArray objectAtIndex:1]integerValue])*100;
endhour = [[elementArray objectAtIndex:2]integerValue];
endmin =([[elementArray objectAtIndex:2]floatValue]-[[elementArray objectAtIndex:2]integerValue])*100;
NSNumber *day = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:[string integerValue]];
NSNumber *starthour1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)starthour];
NSNumber *startmin1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)startmin];
NSNumber *endhour1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)endhour];
NSNumber *endmin1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)endmin];
[temp addObject:day];
[temp addObject:starthour1];
[temp addObject:startmin1];
[temp addObject:endhour1];
[temp addObject:endmin1];
[results addObject:temp];
}
This gives me access to each record. My thought process is saying I could solve this by going through each record and populating the required array as, 'i' being the day, then running a nest loop on each record and extracting hours and mins?

Answer 1

You don't say what your problem actually is, i.e. you started on a solution and stopped and turned to SO, why?
Let's see if we can help you along with some pseudo-code.
You have a dictionary of arrays. the keys represent day numbers as do the first element of each array. After the first array element the elements come in pairs, each is a string containing a textual representation of hours and minutes separated by a full stop. You want and array of arrays where each element has 5 members: day number, start hour, start min, end hour, end minute, all as numbers.
A basic algorithm to handle this is two nested loops. You need somewhere to store the result:
results <- new empty array
Now you need to iterate over your dictionary:
for every key in sourceDictionary
elementArray = sourceDictionary[key]
[This is the loop you've written, except you generated the keys and looked them up while here we extract the keys from the dictionary. If you wish to process the keys in a particular order then generating them in that order, or extracting and sorting them, will handle that.]
Now you'd better do some data validation, elementArray should have at least the day number and one pair of strings in it, test for that:
check elementArray count > 1 and odd else handle error
Now you need to process each pair of strings, first access them:
cursor <- 1 // element 0 is the repeated day number
while cursor < elementArray count do
startTime <- elementArray[cursor]
endTime <- elementArray[cursor+1]
cursor <- cursor + 2 // ready for next iteration
So now you have the day number, key, and the start and end times as string, startTime & endTime. Now you need to split your time strings at the full stop, returning an array of substrings:
startParts <- startTime split at "."
More checks, did you get two parts?
check startParts count is 2 else handle error
Now convert each substring to an integer:
startHours <- parse startParts[0] as integer
startMins <- parse startParts[1] as integer
And keep checking:
check startHours in [0, 23] and startMins in [0, 59] else handle error
You've now got the five values you want, add them to your results array:
results <- results append array of (key, startHours, startMins, endHours, endMins)
Now just convert that to Objective-C and fill in the details. The first loop could be a for in one, the second a for(init; test; increment) one. For splitting a string look at NSString's methods, one will fit the bill. For parsing there are multiple options including NSString methods.
HTH

Answer 2

I got it working with desired output, but code looks messy, could be made elegant.
` NSMutableArray *elementArray =[[NSMutableArray alloc ]init];
NSMutableArray *results =[[NSMutableArray alloc ]init];
NSInteger starthour = 0 ;
NSInteger startmin = 0 ;
NSInteger endhour = 0 ;
NSInteger endmin = 0 ;
NSNumber *starthour1 ;
NSNumber *startmin1 ;
NSNumber *endhour1 ;
NSNumber *endmin1 ;
NSMutableArray *temp = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
NSString *string;
int i = 0;
for ( i = 0; i <=6; i ++){
string = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",i];
elementArray =[Obj.obj valueForKey:string];
starthour = [[elementArray objectAtIndex:1]integerValue];
startmin =([[elementArray objectAtIndex:1]floatValue]-[[elementArray objectAtIndex:1]integerValue])*100;
endhour = [[elementArray objectAtIndex:2]integerValue];
endmin =([[elementArray objectAtIndex:2]floatValue]-[[elementArray objectAtIndex:2]integerValue])*100;
NSNumber *day = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:[string integerValue]];
starthour1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)starthour];
startmin1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)startmin];
endhour1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)endhour];
endmin1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)endmin];
[temp addObject:day];
[temp addObject:starthour1];
[temp addObject:startmin1];
[temp addObject:endhour1];
[temp addObject:endmin1];
[results addObject:[temp copy]];
[temp removeAllObjects];
starthour = [[elementArray objectAtIndex:3]integerValue];
startmin =([[elementArray objectAtIndex:3]floatValue]-[[elementArray objectAtIndex:3]integerValue])*100;
endhour = [[elementArray objectAtIndex:4]integerValue];
endmin =([[elementArray objectAtIndex:4]floatValue]-[[elementArray objectAtIndex:4]integerValue])*100;
starthour1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)starthour];
startmin1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)startmin];
endhour1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)endhour];
endmin1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)endmin];
[temp addObject:day];
[temp addObject:starthour1];
[temp addObject:startmin1];
[temp addObject:endhour1];
[temp addObject:endmin1];
[results addObject:[temp copy]];
[temp removeAllObjects];
starthour = [[elementArray objectAtIndex:5]integerValue];
startmin =([[elementArray objectAtIndex:5]floatValue]-[[elementArray objectAtIndex:5]integerValue])*100;
endhour = [[elementArray objectAtIndex:6]integerValue];
endmin =([[elementArray objectAtIndex:6]floatValue]-[[elementArray objectAtIndex:6]integerValue])*100;
starthour1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)starthour];
startmin1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)startmin];
endhour1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)endhour];
endmin1 = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:(int)endmin];
[temp addObject:day];
[temp addObject:starthour1];
[temp addObject:startmin1];
[temp addObject:endhour1];
[temp addObject:endmin1];
[results addObject:[temp copy]];
[temp removeAllObjects];
`
The output is what I wanted looks like below.
(
(
0,
7,
0,
8,
59
),
(
0,
15,
0,
16,
59
),
(
0,
19,
0,
20,
59
),
(
1,
7,
0,
8,
59
),
(
1,
15,
0,
16,
59
),
(
1,
22,
0,
23,
59
),
(
2,
7,
0,
8,
59
),
(
2,
15,
0,
16,
59
),
(
2,
19,
0,
20,
59
),
(
3,
7,
0,
8,
59
),
(
3,
15,
0,
16,
59
),
(
3,
22,
0,
23,
59
),
(
4,
7,
0,
8,
59
),
(
4,
15,
0,
16,
59
),
(
4,
19,
0,
20,
59
),
(
5,
7,
0,
8,
59
),
(
5,
15,
0,
16,
59
),
(
5,
22,
0,
23,
59
),
(
6,
7,
0,
8,
59
),
(
6,
15,
0,
16,
59
),
(
6,
19,
0,
20,
59
)
)