Normally, if I have an NSArray of just NSString's, I can use the NSArray's method:
- (NSString *)componentsJoinedByString:(NSString *)separator
to get a String (like "John,David,Peter"). However, if I have an NSArray of Core Data Entity objects and I just need to to get 1 attribute within (say, the "name" attribute only of each entity object), what is the easiest way to do this?
The Core Data entity object can have many attributes (name, phone, birthdate), but I just want a string like "John,David,Peter".
The following will do a fetch for only the name properties of the Person objects:
NSFetchRequest *request = [NSFetchRequest fetchRequestWithEntityName:#"Person"];
request.propertiesToFetch = #[#"name"];
request.resultType = NSDictionaryResultType;
NSArray *array = [managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:request error:nil];
NSString *names = [[array valueForKey:#"name"] componentsJoinedByString:#","];
NSLog(#"%#", names);
You need to set the resultType to NSDictionaryResultType otherwise it will ignore propertiesToFetch. The result from the fetch is an array of Dictionaries. Using valueForKey and componentsJoinedByString will create a single string out of all the names.
Your best option is the straightforward one of building up a NSMutableString by iterating over the items in you array and asking each one for its name to use in appendString:. You could add a description method to the entity object and then use the method you mentioned but description is used for other things and would probably cause conflicts.
// Assuming you have the list of entities - NSArray *entityObjects
NSMutableString *nameAttributes = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
for(int i = 0; i < [entityObjects count]-1; i++){
[nameAttributes appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#, ", [entityObjects objectAtIndex:i].name]];
}
[nameAttributes appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", [entityObjects lastObject].name]];
If you have an NSArray *objects of Core Data objects, each of which has a name attribute, then you can use
NSArray *names = [objects valueForKey:#"name"];
to get a new array with all the names, which you can then concatenate with
NSString *allNames = [names componentsJoinedByString:#","];
You can simply do like that,
NSString *toCollectString =#"";
for(int k =0;k<self.arrayHoldingObjects.count;k++)
{
ModelName *model = [self.arrayHoldingObjects objectAtIndex:k];
NSString *str = model.name;
toCollectString = [toCollectString stringByAppendingString:str];
}
You will get the names in toCollectString.
Related
I have two arrays and I'm trying to filter the first (array1) with a matching property that exists in a second array (array2). The first array is a dictionary array with key 'name'. The second array is an array of objects with property 'name'. Is it possible to filter contents of 'array1' and display only those that have a matching 'name' found in 'array2'?
I've tried:
NSPredicate *pred = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"name == #%",self.array2];
NSArray *results = [array1 filteredArrayUsingPredicate:pred];
NSLog(#"The results array is %#", results);
Rather than '==' I've tried a mix of 'IN' and '#K' and 'self' but it either crashes or results are 0.
NSPredicate *pred = [NSPredicate predicateWithBlock:^BOOL(id evaluatedObject, NSDictionary *bindings) {
return [[array2 valueForKey:#"name"] containsObject:[evaluatedObject objectForKey:#"name"]];
}];
This should work with IN:
NSArray *matchSet = [self.array2 valueForKey:#"name"];
NSPredicate *pred = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"name IN #%",matchSet];
Typed in Safari.
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Predicates/Articles/pSyntax.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40001795-215891
Here's a quick example of how you could accomplish this:
int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
#autoreleasepool {
NSArray *arrayOne = #[#{#"name": #"Alvin"}, #{#"name": #"Brian"}, #{#"name": #"Charlie"}];
BMPPerson *alvin = [[BMPPerson alloc] initWithName:#"Alvin"];
BMPPerson *charlie = [[BMPPerson alloc] initWithName:#"Charlie"];
NSArray *arrayTwo = #[alvin, charlie];
NSArray *values = [arrayTwo valueForKey:#"name"];
NSMutableArray *filteredValues = [NSMutableArray array];
[arrayOne enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
NSString *name = [obj valueForKey:#"name"];
if ([values containsObject:name]) {
[filteredValues addObject:name];
}
}];
NSLog(#"%#", filteredValues);
}
return 0;
}
In the example, arrayOne is an NSArray of NSDictionary objects. Each object has a key of name.
The objects contained in arrayTwo are a basic NSObject subclass that has a name property.
To get the values of the name properties for all of the objects in arrayTwo we make use of the key-value coding method -valueForKey: which calls -valueForKey: on each object in the receiver and returns an array of the results.
We then create an NSMutableArray to hold the filtered results from arrayOne.
Next we enumerate the objects in arrayOne using the -enumerateObjectsUsingBlock: method. In this example, we know that the obj argument is an NSDictionary that has a key of name. Instead of casting to an NSDictionary and calling -objectForKey: we can simply call -valueForKey: and store the value in our local variable name. We then check to see if name is in the values array and if it is, add it to our filteredValues.
Hi I'm getting data online from a JSON file and I'm trying to sort it by date in descending order, I've done it before using an XML parser using an RSS feed and tried to use the same concept but can't seem to get it and it crashes every time.
NSData *data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];
NSDictionary *dict = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:kNilOptions error:nil];
NSDictionary *dataDict = [dict objectForKey:#"data"];
NSArray *array = [dataDict objectForKey:#"items"];
for (int i=0; i<[array count]; i++) {
SongInfo *song = [[SongInfo alloc]init];
NSMutableDictionary *entry = [array objectAtIndex:i];
song.uploaded = [entry objectForKey:#"uploaded"];
song.uploader = [entry objectForKey:#"uploader"];
NSComparator comparator = ^(NSDictionary *a, NSDictionary *b) {
return [a[#"uploaded"] compare:b[#"uploaded"]];
};
NSUInteger index = [songsArray indexOfObject:entry
inSortedRange:NSMakeRange(0, [songsArray count])
options:NSBinarySearchingInsertionIndex
usingComparator:comparator];
[songsArray insertObject:song atIndex:index];
EDIT: Managed to fix it by using the NSSortDescriptor and putting it into an array and then back into the same array, not sure if there is a better way to do this but this is how I did it...
NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor;
sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"uploaded"
ascending:NO];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = [NSArray arrayWithObject:sortDescriptor];
NSArray *sortedArray;
sortedArray = [songsArray sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:sortDescriptors];
songsArray = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:sortedArray];
// [songsArray addObject:[song copy] atIndex:index];
[songsArray addObject:song];
You're comparing objects inserted in the songsArray with a comparator that takes in two dictionaries. It seems like the comparator should compare SongInfo objects rather than NSDictionaries.
We can't see what songsArray is. Creating a sorted array manually like you do is really inefficient. Call the NSArray method sortedArrayUsingComparator instead, and there is no need to create SongInfo objects.
On the other hand, if an array of SongInfo* is what you want, create that array first as an NSMutableArray with all the SongInfo's from the JSON data, then sort that array by calling sortUsingComparator.
Note that in the comparator block you can actually use the type of the object: So in the first case NSDictionary* instead of id, in the second case SongInfo* instead of id.
I have two NSArray objects that I would like to be sorted the same. One contains NSString objects, the other custom Attribute objects. Here is what my "key" NSArray looks like:
// The master order
NSArray *stringOrder = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"12", #"10", #"2", nil];
The NSArray with custom objects:
// The array of custom Attribute objects that I want sorted by the stringOrder array
NSMutableArray *items = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
Attribute *attribute = nil;
attribute = [[Attribute alloc] init];
attribute.assetID = #"10";
[items addObject:attribute];
attribute = [[Attribute alloc] init];
attribute.assetID = #"12";
[items addObject:attribute];
attribute = [[Attribute alloc] init];
attribute.assetID = #"2";
[items addObject:attribute];
So, what I would like to do is use the stringOrder array to determine the sorting of the items array of custom objects.
How can I do this?
Hereby, I compare directly the index of obj1.assetID in stringOrder with the index of obj2.assetID in stringOrder (using Objective-C literals for #() to transform NSString => NSNumber)
[items sortUsingComparator:^NSComparisonResult(Attribute *obj1, Attribute *obj2) {
return [#([stringOrder indexOfObject:obj1.assetID]) compare:#([stringOrder indexOfObject:obj2.assetID])]
}];
Or without ObjC literals :
[items sortUsingComparator:^NSComparisonResult(Attribute *obj1, Attribute *obj2) {
return [[NSNumber numberWithInt:[stringOrder indexOfObject:obj1.assetID]] compare:[NSNumber numberWithInt:[stringOrder indexOfObject:obj2.assetID]]]
}];
While cwehrungs answer will get the job done, the performance is not great on relatively small arrays.
Here is another method for performing the same kind of sort that is a bit quicker (though still far from perfect):
NSMutableArray *sorted = [NSMutableArray array];
// pre-populate with objects
for (int i = 0; i < stringOrder.count; i++)
{
[sorted addObject:[NSNull null]];
}
// place the items at the correct position
for (Attribute *a in items)
{
NSUInteger idx = [stringOrder indexOfObject:a.assetID];
if (idx != NSNotFound)
{
[sorted setObject:a atIndexedSubscript:idx];
}
}
// finally remove all the unecesarry placeholders if one array was smaller
[sorted removeObject:[NSNull null]];
Comparison
Here are the results form running the two methods on an iPhone 5:
sortUsingComparator:
100 - 0.012 s
1000 - 1.116 s
2000 - 4.405 s
3000 - 9.028 s
prepopulated array
100 - 0.003 s
1000 - 0.236 s
2000 - 0.917 s
3000 - 2.063 s
There are a couple approaches you could take.
You could store your Attribute objects in an NSDictionary, with the keys being the strings in your stringOrder array. Then, you could get a sorted array of the keys and use that to populate whatever view you're using to display them:
NSArray* sortedKeys = [dict keysSortedByValueUsingComparator:^(id obj1, id obj2) {
return [obj1 compareTo:obj2];
}
The other is that you make the sort order an intrinsic property of your Attribute object, so an array of Attributes can be sorted directly. I would only recommend taking this approach if the sort order is actually an intrinsic property of your Attributes object. If it isn't and you do this, you'll wind up storing presentation information where it doesn't belong.
Here's an example:
NSArray* sortedAttrs = [attributes sortedArrayUsingComparator:^(id obj1, id obj2) {
// Perform comparison of Attribute's, ahem, attributes
}
Here is the solution that I came up with that works extremely well. Anyone see performance issues with this?
for (Attribute *a in items) {
int index = [stringOrder indexOfObject:a.assetID];
a.sortOrder = index;
}
NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"sortOrder" ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = [NSArray arrayWithObject:sortDescriptor];
NSArray *sortedArray = [items sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:sortDescriptors];
Parallel Processing:
Results (quad core):
1. sortme:95 sortby:852345 sorted:95 time:0.052576
2. sortme:54248 sortby:852345 sorted:54243 time:0.264660
-(NSArray *)sortArray:(NSArray *)sortme sortBy:(NSArray *)sortBy{
CFAbsoluteTime time = CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent();
NSSet *sortmeSet = [NSSet setWithArray:sortme];
NSMutableDictionary *sortDictionary = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
dispatch_queue_t sortDictionaryThread = dispatch_queue_create("my.sortDictionaryThread", DISPATCH_QUEUE_CONCURRENT);
[sortBy enumerateObjectsWithOptions:NSEnumerationConcurrent usingBlock:^(id _Nonnull obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL * _Nonnull stop) {
if ([sortmeSet containsObject:obj]){
dispatch_barrier_async(sortDictionaryThread, ^{
sortDictionary[obj] = #(idx);
});
}
}];
__block NSArray *sortedArray = nil;
dispatch_barrier_sync(sortDictionaryThread, ^{
sortedArray = [sortDictionary keysSortedByValueUsingSelector:#selector(compare:)];
});
NSLog(#"sortme:%li sortby:%li sorted:%li time:%f",sortme.count,sortBy.count,sortedArray.count, CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent() - time);
return sortedArray;
}
I have an NSArray, where each object contains a specific class called Card. Card has a description method. I want to join all objects in the array using the output of the description method, separated by spaces. Is there a simple to do this, without manually iterating the NSArray and manipulating NSString?
Something akin to the following made-up code?
NSArray *myArray = getCards(); // fetches 10 items or more
NSString *myString = [myArray joinUsingDescriptionMethodSeparatedBy:#" "];
or
NSString *myString = [NSString stringFromArrayDescriptionMethods:myArray separatedBy:#" "];
Naturally ,I could implement this myself but I suspect there could be something already present that does this.
I don't think that there is such a method. You can also implement it in a Category for NSString.
Sorry, I found this:
NSString * result = [[array valueForKey:#"description"] componentsJoinedByString:#""];
From the documentation:
Constructs and returns an NSString object that is the result of
interposing a given separator between the elements of the array.
- (NSString *)componentsJoinedByString:(NSString *)separator
Do this for description method of each NSArray item:
NSMutableString * result = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
for (NSObject * obj in array)
{
[result appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:#" %#"[obj description]]];
}
NSLog(#"The concatenated string is %#", result);
I extract data from a NSMutableArray using NSPredicate:
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"SELF MATCHES %#", value];
NSArray *results = [array_to_search filteredArrayUsingPredicate:predicate];
When I use:
NSLog(#"%#", results);
I get:
({pub_id = 102 "pub_name" = "some publisher" city = "Peshawar"});
I would like to extract values of all 3 items pub_id, pub_name, city.
What's being returned is an array containing 1 object (which denoted by the curly braces {} means a dictionary). To extract each of the three components, you can do:
NSString *pub_id = [[results objectAtIndex:0] valueForKey:#"pub_id"];
NSString *pub_name = [[results objectAtIndex:0] valueForKey:#"pub_name"];
NSString *city = [[results objectAtIndex:0] valueForKey:#"city"];
Bear in mind that this solution is only suitable for the example you've provided. If the query ever returns more than 1 object in the array, you'll need to use enumeration/for loop to read the results.
I have understood that you want to get those three objects separately, isn't it?
In case I am right:
NSLog(#"PUBID: %d \n PUBNAME: %# \n CITY: %#", [[results objectAtIndex:0] intValue], [results objectAtIndex:1], [results objectAtIndex:2]);
This code should print
PUBID: 102
PUBNAME: some publisher
CITY: Peshawar.
So your result from
[array_to_search filteredArrayUsingPredicate:predicate];
is another array and you can use that with objectAtIndex:
To get all the values from a dictionary into an array do:
[dictionary allValues];
The object you get out of the array using the prodicate is apparently an NSDictionary. Use the following code:
NSString *city = [[results objectAtIndex:0] valueForKey:#"city"];
et cetera.