I've got an method that takes NSDictionary arg. This NSDictionary has some predefined keys it'll take. All the obj's should be strings. But only certain string objs are valid for each key.
So my approach was to typedef NSString for each valid string per key. I'm hoping not to extend the NSString class.
I've typedef'd some NSString's...
typedef NSString MyStringType
Then I define a few...
MyStringType * const ValidString = #"aValidString";
Here's what I'd like to do in my sample method..
- (void)setAttrbiutes:(NSDictionary *)attributes {
NSArray *keys = [attributes allKeys];
for (NSString *key in keys) {
if ([key isEqualToString:#"ValidKey"]) {
id obj = [attributes objectForKey:key];
//Here's where I'd like to check..
if (**obj is MyStringType**) {
}
}
}
}
I'm open to other ideas if there's a better approach to solve the obj type problem of an NSDictionary.
Doesn't work like that; typedefs are a compile time alias that don't survive being passed through a dictionary.
In any case, using typedefs for something like this would be unwieldy.
I suggest you create a property list -- either as a file in your project or in code -- that contains the specifications of your various keys and valid values, then write a little validator that, passed a string and value, can validate the string-value pair for validity.
This also gives you the flexibility to extend your validator in the future. For example, you might have a #"Duration" key that can only be in the range of 1 to 20.
Instead of setting up a typedef for you special values, one possible option would be to create an NSSet of the special values. Then in your code you can verify that the object in the dictionary is in your set.
What about a combination of category on NSString + associated object?
Something along the lines (untested!!):
#interface NSString (BBumSpecial)
- (NSString *) setSpecial: (BOOL) special ;
- (BOOL) special ;
#end
and:
#implementation NSString (BBumSpecial)
static void * key ;
- (NSString *) setSpecial: (BOOL) special {
objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &key, special ? #YES : #NO, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_ASSIGN) ;
return self ;
}
- (BOOL) special {
id obj = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &key) ;
return obj && [obj boolValue] ;
}
#end
Which you could then use as:
NSString * mySpecialString = [#"I'm Special" setSpecial:YES] ;
?
Related
Scenario:
I have an NSObject 'A' representing a relationship between two other NSObjects 'B and C' respectively. Both B and C have properties (NSStrings) retrieved using KVC.
I would like to use NSExpression in the body of an 'A' accessor to derive a compound string. So:
[B valueForKey:#"oneString"] returns 'Foo'
[C valueForKey:#"oneString"] returns 'Bar'
// And I would like to dynamically form
[A valueForKey:#"oneString"] returns 'Foo:Bar'
I know the obvious of 'stringWithFormat' but I need to allow for different expressions using different keyPaths determined at run-time.
Could you do:
- (id)valueForUndefinedKey:(NSString*)key
{
return [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#:%#", [self.a valueForKey:key], [self.b valueForKey:key]];
}
Just to spell the thoughts from comments out in a more complete answer:
You can define oneString as a readonly property:
#property (readonly) NSString* oneString;
Then define a custom accessor:
- (NSString *)oneString {
// ... do your logic here
NSString *firstStr = ...
NSString *secondStr = ...
return [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#:%#", firstStr, secondStr];
}
+ (NSSet *) keyPathsForValuesAffectingOneString {
return [NSSet setWithObjects: #"self.a", #"self.b", #"self.c", nil];
}
Typed directly into the browser, so beware of typos
For example the Object is something like this:
MyUser: NSObject{
NSString *firstName;
NSString *lastName;
NSString *gender;
int age;
}
and I would like to compare to user, if their attributes are the same, I will treat it as equal... instead of write a static method to compare enough attribute one by one, can I have a lazy way to get all the attribute to compare themselves, Thanks.?
For comparison, this is what you're trying to avoid writing.
-(NSUInteger)hash {
return [firstName hash] ^ [lastName hash] ^ [gender hash] ^ age;
}
-(BOOL)isEqual:(id)other {
return [other isKindOfClass:[self class]]
&& age == other.age
&& [gender isEqualToString:other.gender]
&& [firstName isEqualToString:other.firstName]
&& [lastName isEqualToString:other.lastName];
}
Using XOR is an extremely simple way of combining hashes, and I mostly include it as a stand-in. It may hurt the quality of the hash value, depending on distribution of the underlying hash functions. If the hashes have a uniform distribution, it should be all right. Note also that combining hashes only works because NSStrings that are equal in content have the same hashes. This approach won't work with all types; in particular, it won't work with types that use the default implementation of hash.
To get around writing the above, first change the type of the age property to NSNumber, so it doesn't have to be handled as a special case. You don't have to change the ivar, though you can if you want.
#interface MyUser : NSObject {
...
unsigned int age; // Or just make this an NSNumber*
}
...
#property (assign,nonatomic) NSNumber *age;
#implementation MyUser
#synthesize firstName, lastName, gender;
/* if the age ivar is an NSNumber*, the age property can be synthesized
instead of explicitly defining accessors.
*/
#dynamic age;
-(NSNumber*)age {
return [NSNumber numberWithUnsignedInt:age];
}
-(void)setAge:(NSNumber*)newAge {
age = [newAge unsignedIntValue];
}
Second, make sure your class supports the fast enumeration protocol. If it doesn't, you can implement -countByEnumeratingWithState:objects:count: by making use of reflection (with the Objective-C runtime functions) to get the list of properties for instances of your class. For example (taken in part from "Implementing countByEnumeratingWithState:objects:count:" on Cocoa With Love):
#import <objc/runtime.h>
...
#interface MyUser (NSFastEnumeration) <NSFastEnumeration>
-(NSUInteger)countByEnumeratingWithState:(NSFastEnumerationState *)state objects:(id *)stackbuf count:(NSUInteger)len;
#end
#implementation MyUser
#synthesize firstName, lastName, gender;
/* defined in the main implementation rather than a category, since there
can be only one +[MyUser initialize].
*/
static NSString **propertyNames=0;
static unsigned int cProperties=0;
+(void)initialize {
unsigned int i;
const char *propertyName;
objc_property_t *properties = class_copyPropertyList([self class], &cProperties);
if ((propertyNames = malloc(cProperties * sizeof(*propertyNames)))) {
for (i=0; i < cProperties; ++i) {
propertyName = property_getName(properties[i]);
propertyNames[i] = [[NSString alloc]
initWithCString:propertyName
encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
}
} else {
cProperties = 0;
// Can't initialize property names. Fast enumeration won't work. What do?
}
}
...
#end
#implementation MyUser (NSFastEnumeration)
-(NSUInteger)
countByEnumeratingWithState:(NSFastEnumerationState *)state
objects:(id *)stackbuf
count:(NSUInteger)len
{
if (state->state >= cProperties) {
return 0;
}
state->itemsPtr = propertyNames;
state->state = cProperties;
state->mutationsPtr = (unsigned long *)self;
return cProperties;
}
#end
Last, implement hash (using fast enumeration) and isEqual:. Hash should calculate the hashes of all properties, then combine them to create the hash for the MyUser instance. isEqual: can simply check the other object is an instance of MyUser (or a subclass thereof) and compare hashes. For example:
-(NSUInteger)hash {
NSUInteger myHash=0;
for (NSString *property in self) {
// Note: extremely simple way of combining hashes. Will likely lead
// to bugs
myHash ^= [[self valueForKey:property] hash];
}
return myHash;
}
-(BOOL)isEqual:(id)other {
return [other isKindOfClass:[self class]]
&& [self hash] == [other hash];
}
Now, ask yourself which is less work overall. If you want a single approach what will work for all your classes, it might be the second (with some changes, such as turning +initialize into a class method on NSObject that returns the property name array and length), but in all likelihood the former is the winner.
There's a danger in both of the above hash implementations with calculating the hash based on property values. From Apple's documentation on hash:
If a mutable object is added to a collection that uses hash values to determine the object’s position in the collection, the value returned by the hash method of the object must not change while the object is in the collection. Therefore, either the hash method must not rely on any of the object’s internal state information or you must make sure the object’s internal state information does not change while the object is in the collection.
Since you want isEqual: to be true whenever two objects have the same property values, the hashing scheme must depend directly or indirectly on the object's state, so there's no getting around this danger.
I have an array of strings, from which I would like to extract only those with unique character sets. (For example, "asdf" and "fdsa" would be considered redundant). This is the method I am currently using:
NSMutableArray *uniqueCharSets = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSMutableArray *uniqueStrings = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for (NSString *_string in unique) {
NSCharacterSet *_charSet = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:_string];
if (![uniqueCharSets containsObject:_charSet]) {
[uniqueStrings addobject:_string];
[uniqueCharSets addObject:_charSet];
}
}
This seems to work, but it's very slow and resource-intensive. Can anyone think of a better way to do this?
Using an NSDictionary, map each string's lexicographically-sorted equivalent to an NSArray of input strings: (e.g. adfs => [afsd, asdf, ...])
Walk through the dictionary, printing out keys (or their values) which only have single-element array values
I just put together a quick example of how I would approach this, but it turns out that it is more, odd, than you first expect. For one, NSCharacterSet doesn't implement equality to check contents. It only uses the pointer value. Based on this your example will NOT work properly.
My approach is to use an NSSet to deal with the hashing of these for us.
#interface StringWrapper : NSObject
#property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *string;
#property (nonatomic, copy) NSData *charSetBitmap;
- (id)initWithString:(NSString*)aString;
#end
#implementation StringWrapper
#synthesize string, charSetBitmap;
- (id)initWithString:(NSString*)aString;
{
if ((self = [super init]))
{
self.string = aString;
}
return self;
}
- (void)setString:(NSString *)aString;
{
string = [aString copy];
self.charSetBitmap = [[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:aString] bitmapRepresentation];
}
- (BOOL)isEqual:(id)object;
{
return [self.charSetBitmap isEqual:[object charSetBitmap]];
}
- (NSUInteger)hash;
{
return [self.charSetBitmap hash];
}
#end
int main (int argc, const char * argv[])
{
#autoreleasepool {
NSMutableSet *stringWrappers = [[NSMutableSet alloc] init];
NSArray *strings = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"abc",#"aaabcccc",#"awea",#"awer",#"abcde", #"ehra", #"QWEQ", #"werawe", nil];
for (NSString *str in strings)
[stringWrappers addObject:[[StringWrapper alloc] initWithString:str]];
NSArray *uniqueStrings = [stringWrappers valueForKey:#"string"];
NSLog(#"%#", uniqueStrings);
}
return 0;
}
The code is pretty straightforward. We create a container object to cache the results of the character set's bitmap representation. We use the bitmap representation because NSData implements isEqual: appropriately.
The only thing that come in my mind is not to use containsObject: since NSMutableArray is not ordered (in general), we can assume that containsObject simply iterates the array starting from the beginning until he finds the object. This means O(n) (n comparisons in the worst case).
A better solution may consists in keeping the array ordered and use a custom search method using a dichotomic approach. This way you'll have a O(log n) complexity.
Of course, you must take care of keeping your array ordered (much more efficient than add and reorder), so you should use insertObject:atIndex: method to insert the element properly.
I need a way to pass a property and get the name assigned to it. Any suggestions?
#property (nonatomic, retain) MyObject *crazyObject;
NSString *str = SOME_WAY_TO_GET_PROPERTY_NAME(crazyObject);
// Above method should return #"crazyObject"
You can try this:
unsigned int propertyCount = 0;
objc_property_t * properties = class_copyPropertyList([self class], &propertyCount);
NSMutableArray * propertyNames = [NSMutableArray array];
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < propertyCount; ++i) {
objc_property_t property = properties[i];
const char * name = property_getName(property);
[propertyNames addObject:[NSString stringWithUTF8String:name]];
}
free(properties);
NSLog(#"Names: %#", propertyNames);
It's as simple as this...expanding upon what Chuck already mentioned:
#ifndef STR_PROP
#define STR_PROP( prop ) NSStringFromSelector(#selector(prop))
#endif
You then use it like so:
NSString *strProp = STR_PROP(myProperty);
Background
Keep in mind that properties are really just, to quote Apple, "a syntactical shorthand for declaring a class’s accessor methods." In fact, by itself, the #property declaration doesn't even work. Your #synthesize statement translates the #property into the equivalent of two methods:
- (void)setCrazyObject:(MyObject *)something;
- (MyObject *)crazyObject;
Which one is used depends on the context surrounding your self.crazyObject. (#synthesize also creates a matching instance variable if you didn't do it yourself.) The offshoot of all this is that you can't really translate to and from a property with one single method.
Proposed Solution
You can use what Apple already provides:
NSString *foo = NSStringFromSelector(#selector(myClassProperty));
Or do something custom:
Given that self.crazyObject really translates to either [self crazyObject] or [self setCrazyObject:foo] by the time your code is running, ou'll probably need two methods, like:
- (NSString *)setterStringForProperty:(SEL)prop;
- (NSString *)getterStringForProperty:(SEL)prop;
You might then want at least 2 companion methods such as:
- (SEL)setterForPropertyName:(NSString *)propString;
- (SEL)getterForPropertyName:(NSString *)propString;
Within these methods, you can use the Foundation functions NSStringFromSelector and NSSelectorFromString to convert back and forth between SEL and NSString. Use whatever string manipulations you like to convert back and forth between your setter string (setCrazyObject) and your property name (crazyObject).
A complete solution is hard to provide without knowing the exact use case, but hopefully this provides some more clues for anyone trying to accomplish something similar. There might even be some useful things made possible by combining this approach with Oscar's answer.
Here is a function that returns the name of an ivar, so basically it not only returns the properties but any ivar of the class. I haven't found a way to get the property directly so I used the ivar trick.
#import <objc/objc.h>
/// -----
- (NSString *)nameOfIvar:(id)ivarPtr
{
NSString *name = nil;
uint32_t ivarCount;
Ivar *ivars = class_copyIvarList([self class], &ivarCount);
if(ivars)
{
for(uint32_t i=0; i<ivarCount; i++)
{
Ivar ivar = ivars[i];
id pointer = object_getIvar(self, ivar);
if(pointer == ivarPtr)
{
name = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:ivar_getName(ivar)];
break;
}
}
free(ivars);
}
return name;
}
After searching and debugging i find solution for me...
Added #import <objc/runtime.h>
Methods object_getIvar(id obj, Ivar ivar) send bad access and app crashes. i modify some code and it worked great:
+(NSString*)stringWithProperty:(id)property withClass:(id)controller
{
NSString *name = nil;
uint32_t ivarCount;
Ivar *ivars = class_copyIvarList([controller class], &ivarCount);
if(ivars)
{
for(uint32_t i=0; i<ivarCount; i++)
{
Ivar ivar = ivars[i];
name = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:ivar_getName(ivar)];
if ([controller valueForKey:name] == property)
{
break;
}
}
free(ivars);
}
return name;
}
Modifying the solution, it works when your object is allocated already, otherwise it returns nil:-
NSString * NSStringFromProperty(NSObject* property, NSObject* class)
{
unsigned int propertyCount = 0;
objc_property_t * properties = class_copyPropertyList([class class], &propertyCount);
NSString *name = nil;
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < propertyCount; ++i)
{
name = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:property_getName(properties[i])];
NSObject *object = [class valueForKey:name];
if (object != nil && object == property)
{
break;
}
else
{
name = nil;
}
}
free(properties);
return name;
}
You can use
NSString *str = NSStringFromSelector(#selector(crazyObject));
The good thing about this approach is that:
Xcode will autocomplete word crazyObject for you.
When later on you will change the property name from crazyObject to myCrazyObject, Xcode will add a warning saying "unrecognized selector!" -- pretty good for debugging.
I use this method so often, that I even created a function, which allows to write less letters:
NSString * __nonnull sfs(SEL __nonnull theSelector)
{
if (!theSelector)
{
abort();
}
return NSStringFromSelector(theSelector);
}
Now your final solution can look like this:
NSString *str = sfs(#selector(crazyObject));
From Get property name as string, without using the runtime reference library, just define:
#define propertyKeyPath(property) (#""#property)
#define propertyKeyPathLastComponent(property) [[(#""#property) componentsSeparatedByString:#"."] lastObject]
And then you can do something like this:
NSLog(#"%#", propertyKeyPathLastComponent(appleStore.storeLocation.street)); //result: street
You may check my approach at Gist to get the string for a property with autocompletion and compile-time check.
How to use:
Get the property name for a class:
#interface AnyClass : NSObject
#property (strong) NSData *data;
#end
// == My approach ==
// C string for a class
PropertyNameForClass(AnyClass, data); // ==> "data"
// NSString for a class
PropertyStringForClass(AnyClass, data); // ==> #"data"
// Bad approach (no autocompletion; no compile-time check):
NSString *propertyName = #"data";
Get the property name for a protocol:
#protocol AnyProtocol
#property (strong) NSDate *date;
#end
// C string for a protocol
PropertyNameForProtocol(AnyProtocol, date); // ==> "date"
// NSString for a protocol
PropertyStringForProtocol(AnyProtocol, date); // ==> #"date"
Unconventional, hacky, ugly, late, but... as strong-named as it gets and works like a charm:
#define SOME_WAY_TO_GET_PROPERTY_NAME(p) p == p ? [[[[[[[NSString alloc] initWithCString:#p encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] componentsSeparatedByString:#"."] lastObject] componentsSeparatedByString:#" "] lastObject] stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#"]" withString:#""] : #""
Sample usage:
NSLog(SOME_WAY_TO_GET_PROPERTY_NAME(self.customer.surname)); // surname
NSLog(SOME_WAY_TO_GET_PROPERTY_NAME([[self customer] birthDate])); // birthDate
...
I have a string I want to parse and return an equivalent enum. I need to use the enum type elsewhere, and I think I like how I'm defining it. The problem is that I don't know a good way to check the string against the enum values without being redundant about the order of the enums.
Is there no option other than a big if/else?
typedef enum {
ZZColorRed,
ZZColorGreen,
ZZColorBlue,
} ZZColorType;
- (ZZColorType)parseColor:(NSString *)inputString {
// inputString will be #"red", #"green", or #"blue" (trust me)
// how can I turn that into ZZColorRed, etc. without
// redefining their order like this?
NSArray *colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"red", #"green", #"blue", nil];
return [colors indexOfObject:inputString];
}
In Python, I'd probably do something like the following, although to be honest I'm not in love with that either.
## maps url text -> constant string
RED_CONSTANT = 1
BLUE_CONSTANT = 2
GREEN_CONSTANT = 3
TYPES = {
'red': RED_CONSTANT,
'green': GREEN_CONSTANT,
'blue': BLUE_CONSTANT,
}
def parseColor(inputString):
return TYPES.get(inputString)
ps. I know there are color constants in Cocoa, this is just an example.
try this: Map enum to char array
Pseudo code.. untested.
int lookup(const char* str) {
for(name = one; name < NUMBER_OF_INPUTS; name++) {
if(strcmp(str, stats[name]) == 0) return name;
}
return -1;
}
A more objective-c'ish version of the code could be:
// build dictionary
NSMutableDictionary* dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
for(i=0; i<number_of_strings; i++) {
[dict setObject:[NSNumber numberWithInteger:i] forKey:[NSString stringWithUTF8String:names[i]]];
}
// elsewhere... lookup in dictionary
id obj = [dict objectForKey:name];
if(obj) return [obj intValue];
return -1;
This has already been answered: Converting between C enum and XML
Basically, you wind up defining corresponding strings when you define your enum, and then you use a category on NSArray so that you can do this:
static NSArray* colorNamesArray = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:colorNames];
//colorNames is a nil-terminated list of string literals #defined near your enum
NSString* colorName = [colorNamesArray stringWithEnum:color];
//stringWithEnum: is defined with a category
Sure, the #define is a little ugly, but the code above, which is what you'll work with most of the time, is actually pretty clean.
I was never satisfied with any of the suggestions. (But I appreciate the effort that went into them.) I tried a few of them but they didn't feel good or were error-prone in practice.
I ended up created a custom dictionary to map integers to strings which feels a lot better because it's Cocoa through and through. (I didn't subclass NSDictionary in order to make it harder to misuse.)
#interface ZZEnumDictionary : NSObject {
NSMutableDictionary *dictionary;
}
+ (id)dictionary;
+ (id)dictionaryWithStrings:(id)firstString, ...;
- (NSString *)stringForInt:(NSInteger)intEnum;
- (NSInteger)intForString:(NSString *)stringEnum;
- (BOOL)isValidInt:(NSInteger)intEnum;
- (BOOL)isValidString:(NSString *)stringEnum;
- (BOOL)stringEquals:(NSString *)stringEnum intEnum:(NSInteger)intEnum;
- (BOOL)setContainsString:(NSSet *)set forInt:(NSInteger)intEnum;
- (NSArray *)allStrings;
#end
#interface ZZEnumDictionary ()
- (void)setInt:(NSInteger)integer forString:(NSString *)string;
#end