plist wont pull into my NSMutableArray. am i missing something? - objective-c

Question

So here's my code. I'm trying to display content from a plist into a table and i keep running into errors. ive been at it all day so i'm probably missing something fairly easy. hope you guys can figure out why when i build, the table is empty.
here is my plist (without headers):
<array>
<dict>
<key>word</key>
<string>AWord1</string>
<key>definition</key>
<string>here is a definition</string>
<key>partOfSpeech</key>
<string>here is a part of speech</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>word</key>
<string>Bword1</string>
<key>definition</key>
<string>here is a definition</string>
<key>partOfSpeech</key>
<string>here is a part of speech</string>
</dict>
</array>
</plist>
edit: closing tags were missing due to misformatting - fixed
ok. here is my new code. i NSLog'd and decided to back up to before i went to plist. so, if you could help. how would you suggest i pull this data from plist instead (assuming the data is in the plist)
//Initialize the array.
listOfItems = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSArray *countriesToLiveInArray = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"Iceland", #"Greenland", #"Switzerland", #"Norway", #"New Zealand", #"Greece", #"Italy", #"Ireland", nil];
NSDictionary *countriesToLiveInDict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:countriesToLiveInArray forKey:#"Countries"];
NSArray *countriesLivedInArray = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"India", #"U.S.A", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", #"Test", nil];
NSDictionary *countriesLivedInDict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:countriesLivedInArray forKey:#"Countries"];
[listOfItems addObject:countriesToLiveInDict];
[listOfItems addObject:countriesLivedInDict];
//Initialize the copy array.
copyListOfItems = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
//Set the title
self.navigationItem.title = #"Countries";
//Add the search bar
self.tableView.tableHeaderView = searchBar;
searchBar.autocorrectionType = UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo;
searching = NO;
letUserSelectRow = YES;
i feel as though i'm still not actually telling it to parse the data from the plist. i've only init'd it. thoughts?

Answer 1

Your code seems very incomplete, it doesn't bear much relation to the plist. Here are a few issues
as noted by H2CO3 and Fogmeister, the plist as you show it is missing a closing </array> tag (but lets assume that is a typo in the question)
you load the entire array into a single entry in a countriesToLiveIn dictionary (against the key "definition")
countriesToLiveIn becomes a single object in the array listOfItems
you initialise a copyOfListItems array but then don't do anything with it
Then you do not indicate where the table is getting it's date from.
If it is from copyOfListItems, well that array is empty .: empty table.
If it is from listOfItems you will be parsing the countriesToLiveIn dictionary somehow, but you don't show how.
If it is directly from the plist array countriesToLiveInArray then that missing </array> tag could be a clue. You would also need to be parsing the array's contained dictionaries somehow, and you don't show us that code, there could be something wrong there.
To get further with this I suggest copious use of NSLog to find out how far the data gets in to your objects. Perhaps you could expand your question with the results if you are still getting stuck.
update
Following your updated code, my first suspicion is that there was a problem with your URL.
in your previous edit this is the suspect line
NSMutableArray *wordListArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfURL: [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://url.com/dictpPlist.plist"]];
You need to NSLog right after it:
NSLog (#"wordListArray %#", wordListArray);
To confirm that you are not picking up the plist here. At least then we isolate the problem to this point in your code.
Then we need to question the URL - is it correct? how did the plist get there? can you verify it independently? Is it a local file URL or a network URL?
If you are accessing a network resource, this is quite likely your problem. The initWithContentsOfURL methods should only really be used with local filesystem URLs. See for example
initwithcontentsofurl methods considered harmful.
You should be using NSURLConnection asynchronously instead. Apple is a little cagey about this also:
aURL: The location of a file containing a string representation of an array produced by the writeToURL:atomically: method.
Assuming this is your issue, why don't you get it working with a local filesystem plist first.
Write one in code from your listOfItems array:
- (void) createPlist
{
NSFileManager* fManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSError* error;
NSURL* docsURL = [fManager URLForDirectory:NSDocumentDirectory
inDomain:NSUserDomainMask
appropriateForURL:nil
create:NO
error:&error];
NSURL* plistURL = [docsURL URLByAppendingPathComponent:#"testlist.plist"];
[listOfItems writeToURL:plistURL atomically:YES];
}
Read it back in, verify it works, then sort out how to do the same over a network.

Answer 2

try below code
// Path to the plist (in the application bundle)
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:
#"dictpPlist" ofType:#"plist"];
// Build the array from the plist
NSMutableArray *array2 = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:path];
// Show the string values
for (NSString *str in array2)
NSLog(#"--%#", str);