Related
With all the URL-handling objects lying around in the standard Cocoa libraries (NSURL, NSMutableURL, NSMutableURLRequest, etc), I know I must be overlooking an easy way to programmatically compose a GET request.
Currently I'm manually appending "?" followed by name value pairs joined by "&", but all of my name and value pairs need to be manually encoded so NSMutableURLRequest doesn't fail entirely when it tries to connect to the URL.
This feels like something I should be able to use a pre-baked API for.... is there anything out of the box to append an NSDictionary of query parameters to an NSURL? Is there another way I should approach this?
Introduced in iOS8 and OS X 10.10 is NSURLQueryItem, which can be used to build queries. From the docs on NSURLQueryItem:
An NSURLQueryItem object represents a single name/value pair for an item in the query portion of a URL. You use query items with the queryItems property of an NSURLComponents object.
To create one use the designated initializer queryItemWithName:value: and then add them to NSURLComponents to generate an NSURL. For example:
NSURLComponents *components = [NSURLComponents componentsWithString:#"http://stackoverflow.com"];
NSURLQueryItem *search = [NSURLQueryItem queryItemWithName:#"q" value:#"ios"];
NSURLQueryItem *count = [NSURLQueryItem queryItemWithName:#"count" value:#"10"];
components.queryItems = #[ search, count ];
NSURL *url = components.URL; // http://stackoverflow.com?q=ios&count=10
Notice that the question mark and ampersand are automatically handled. Creating an NSURL from a dictionary of parameters is as simple as:
NSDictionary *queryDictionary = #{ #"q": #"ios", #"count": #"10" };
NSMutableArray *queryItems = [NSMutableArray array];
for (NSString *key in queryDictionary) {
[queryItems addObject:[NSURLQueryItem queryItemWithName:key value:queryDictionary[key]]];
}
components.queryItems = queryItems;
I've also written a blog post on how to build URLs with NSURLComponents and NSURLQueryItems.
You can create a category for NSDictionary to do this -- there isn't a standard way in the Cocoa library that I could find either. The code that I use looks like this:
// file "NSDictionary+UrlEncoding.h"
#import <cocoa/cocoa.h>
#interface NSDictionary (UrlEncoding)
-(NSString*) urlEncodedString;
#end
with this implementation:
// file "NSDictionary+UrlEncoding.m"
#import "NSDictionary+UrlEncoding.h"
// helper function: get the string form of any object
static NSString *toString(id object) {
return [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#", object];
}
// helper function: get the url encoded string form of any object
static NSString *urlEncode(id object) {
NSString *string = toString(object);
return [string stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding];
}
#implementation NSDictionary (UrlEncoding)
-(NSString*) urlEncodedString {
NSMutableArray *parts = [NSMutableArray array];
for (id key in self) {
id value = [self objectForKey: key];
NSString *part = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#=%#", urlEncode(key), urlEncode(value)];
[parts addObject: part];
}
return [parts componentsJoinedByString: #"&"];
}
#end
I think the code's pretty straightforward, but I discuss it in some more detail at http://blog.ablepear.com/2008/12/urlencoding-category-for-nsdictionary.html.
I wanted to use Chris's answer, but it wasn't written for Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) so I updated it. I thought I'd paste my solution in case anyone else has this same issue. Note: replace self with the instance or class name where appropriate.
+(NSString*)urlEscapeString:(NSString *)unencodedString
{
CFStringRef originalStringRef = (__bridge_retained CFStringRef)unencodedString;
NSString *s = (__bridge_transfer NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,originalStringRef, NULL, (CFStringRef)#"!*'\"();:#&=+$,/?%#[]% ", kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
CFRelease(originalStringRef);
return s;
}
+(NSString*)addQueryStringToUrlString:(NSString *)urlString withDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dictionary
{
NSMutableString *urlWithQuerystring = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:urlString];
for (id key in dictionary) {
NSString *keyString = [key description];
NSString *valueString = [[dictionary objectForKey:key] description];
if ([urlWithQuerystring rangeOfString:#"?"].location == NSNotFound) {
[urlWithQuerystring appendFormat:#"?%#=%#", [self urlEscapeString:keyString], [self urlEscapeString:valueString]];
} else {
[urlWithQuerystring appendFormat:#"&%#=%#", [self urlEscapeString:keyString], [self urlEscapeString:valueString]];
}
}
return urlWithQuerystring;
}
The other answers work great if the values are strings, however if the values are dictionaries or arrays then this code will handle that.
Its important to note that there is no standard way of passing an array/dictionary via the query string but PHP handles this output just fine
-(NSString *)serializeParams:(NSDictionary *)params {
/*
Convert an NSDictionary to a query string
*/
NSMutableArray* pairs = [NSMutableArray array];
for (NSString* key in [params keyEnumerator]) {
id value = [params objectForKey:key];
if ([value isKindOfClass:[NSDictionary class]]) {
for (NSString *subKey in value) {
NSString* escaped_value = (NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,
(CFStringRef)[value objectForKey:subKey],
NULL,
(CFStringRef)#"!*'();:#&=+$,/?%#[]",
kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#[%#]=%#", key, subKey, escaped_value]];
}
} else if ([value isKindOfClass:[NSArray class]]) {
for (NSString *subValue in value) {
NSString* escaped_value = (NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,
(CFStringRef)subValue,
NULL,
(CFStringRef)#"!*'();:#&=+$,/?%#[]",
kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#[]=%#", key, escaped_value]];
}
} else {
NSString* escaped_value = (NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,
(CFStringRef)[params objectForKey:key],
NULL,
(CFStringRef)#"!*'();:#&=+$,/?%#[]",
kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#=%#", key, escaped_value]];
[escaped_value release];
}
}
return [pairs componentsJoinedByString:#"&"];
}
Examples
[foo] => bar
[translations] =>
{
[one] => uno
[two] => dos
[three] => tres
}
foo=bar&translations[one]=uno&translations[two]=dos&translations[three]=tres
[foo] => bar
[translations] =>
{
uno
dos
tres
}
foo=bar&translations[]=uno&translations[]=dos&translations[]=tres
I refactored and converted to ARC answer by AlBeebe
- (NSString *)serializeParams:(NSDictionary *)params {
NSMutableArray *pairs = NSMutableArray.array;
for (NSString *key in params.keyEnumerator) {
id value = params[key];
if ([value isKindOfClass:[NSDictionary class]])
for (NSString *subKey in value)
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#[%#]=%#", key, subKey, [self escapeValueForURLParameter:[value objectForKey:subKey]]]];
else if ([value isKindOfClass:[NSArray class]])
for (NSString *subValue in value)
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#[]=%#", key, [self escapeValueForURLParameter:subValue]]];
else
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#=%#", key, [self escapeValueForURLParameter:value]]];
}
return [pairs componentsJoinedByString:#"&"];
}
- (NSString *)escapeValueForURLParameter:(NSString *)valueToEscape {
return (__bridge_transfer NSString *) CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL, (__bridge CFStringRef) valueToEscape,
NULL, (CFStringRef) #"!*'();:#&=+$,/?%#[]", kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
}
If you are already using AFNetworking (as was the case with me), you can use it's class AFHTTPRequestSerializer to create the required NSURLRequest.
[[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] requestWithMethod:#"GET" URLString:#"YOUR_URL" parameters:#{PARAMS} error:nil];
In case you only require the URL for your work, use NSURLRequest.URL.
Here is a simple example in Swift (iOS8+):
private let kSNStockInfoFetchRequestPath: String = "http://dev.markitondemand.com/Api/v2/Quote/json"
private func SNStockInfoFetchRequestURL(symbol:String) -> NSURL? {
if let components = NSURLComponents(string:kSNStockInfoFetchRequestPath) {
components.queryItems = [NSURLQueryItem(name:"symbol", value:symbol)]
return components.URL
}
return nil
}
I took Joel's recommendation of using URLQueryItems and turned into a Swift Extension (Swift 3)
extension URL
{
/// Creates an NSURL with url-encoded parameters.
init?(string : String, parameters : [String : String])
{
guard var components = URLComponents(string: string) else { return nil }
components.queryItems = parameters.map { return URLQueryItem(name: $0, value: $1) }
guard let url = components.url else { return nil }
// Kinda redundant, but we need to call init.
self.init(string: url.absoluteString)
}
}
(The self.init method is kinda cheesy, but there was no NSURL init with components)
Can be used as
URL(string: "http://www.google.com/", parameters: ["q" : "search me"])
I've got another solution:
http://splinter.com.au/build-a-url-query-string-in-obj-c-from-a-dict
+(NSString*)urlEscape:(NSString *)unencodedString {
NSString *s = (NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,
(CFStringRef)unencodedString,
NULL,
(CFStringRef)#"!*'\"();:#&=+$,/?%#[]% ",
kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
return [s autorelease]; // Due to the 'create rule' we own the above and must autorelease it
}
// Put a query string onto the end of a url
+(NSString*)addQueryStringToUrl:(NSString *)url params:(NSDictionary *)params {
NSMutableString *urlWithQuerystring = [[[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:url] autorelease];
// Convert the params into a query string
if (params) {
for(id key in params) {
NSString *sKey = [key description];
NSString *sVal = [[params objectForKey:key] description];
// Do we need to add ?k=v or &k=v ?
if ([urlWithQuerystring rangeOfString:#"?"].location==NSNotFound) {
[urlWithQuerystring appendFormat:#"?%#=%#", [Http urlEscape:sKey], [Http urlEscape:sVal]];
} else {
[urlWithQuerystring appendFormat:#"&%#=%#", [Http urlEscape:sKey], [Http urlEscape:sVal]];
}
}
}
return urlWithQuerystring;
}
You can then use it like so:
NSDictionary *params = #{#"username":#"jim", #"password":#"abc123"};
NSString *urlWithQuerystring = [self addQueryStringToUrl:#"https://myapp.com/login" params:params];
-(NSString*)encodeDictionary:(NSDictionary*)dictionary{
NSMutableString *bodyData = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];
int i = 0;
for (NSString *key in dictionary.allKeys) {
i++;
[bodyData appendFormat:#"%#=",key];
NSString *value = [dictionary valueForKey:key];
NSString *newString = [value stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#" " withString:#"+"];
[bodyData appendString:newString];
if (i < dictionary.allKeys.count) {
[bodyData appendString:#"&"];
}
}
return bodyData;
}
Yet another solution, if you use RestKit there's a function in RKURLEncodedSerialization called RKURLEncodedStringFromDictionaryWithEncoding that does exactly what you want.
Simple way of converting NSDictionary to url query string in Objective-c
Ex: first_name=Steve&middle_name=Gates&last_name=Jobs&address=Palo Alto, California
NSDictionary *sampleDictionary = #{#"first_name" : #"Steve",
#"middle_name" : #"Gates",
#"last_name" : #"Jobs",
#"address" : #"Palo Alto, California"};
NSMutableString *resultString = [NSMutableString string];
for (NSString* key in [sampleDictionary allKeys]){
if ([resultString length]>0)
[resultString appendString:#"&"];
[resultString appendFormat:#"%#=%#", key, [sampleDictionary objectForKey:key]];
}
NSLog(#"QueryString: %#", resultString);
Hope will help :)
If you are already using AFNetwork, you can use their built in serializer to to produce an encoded URL;
NSString *baseURL = #"https://api.app.com/parse";
NSDictionary *mutableParameters = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:#"true",#"option1", data, #"option2", token, #"token", #"3.0", #"app", nil];
NSURLRequest *request = [[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] requestWithMethod:#"GET" URLString:baseURL parameters:mutableParameters error:nil];
NSString *urlPath = request.URL.absoluteString;
NSLog(#"%#", urlPath); // https://api.app.com/parse?option1=true&option2=datavalue&token=200%3ATEST%3AENCODE ....
Note; this is an extension to an above answer. The edit queue is full so cannot be added to the existing answer.
Given this implementation:
- (NSMutableArray *)programStack
{
if (_programStack == nil)
_programStack = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
return _programStack;
}
- (id)program
{
return [self.programStack copy];
}
+ (double)popOperandOffStack:(NSMutableArray *)stack
{
double result = 0;
id topOfStack = [stack lastObject];
if (topOfStack)
[stack removeLastObject];
if ([topOfStack isKindOfClass:[NSNumber class]]) {
result = [topOfStack doubleValue];
}
else if ([topOfStack isKindOfClass:[NSString class]])
{
NSString *operation = topOfStack;
// C
if ([operation isEqualToString:#"C"])
{
[stack removeAllObjects];
return 0;
}
}
}
Am I correct in assuming that the class method's call to [stack removeAllObjects] only affects a copy of a copy rather than removing all objects from the instance's _programStack ? How would you, from that class method, affect the instance's variable? Or is there a better way to do this?
Thanks.
[stack removeAllObjects]; will remove all objects from stack. If you call + (double)popOperandOffStack:(NSMutableArray *)stack from an object, passing an instance variable as stack, then popOperandOffStack: operates on that instance variable and will remove all objects:
[[self class] popOperandOffStack:self.myInstanceArray]
If, on the other hand, you call [[self class] popOperandOffStack:[self.myInstanceArray mutableCopy]] it will operate on a copy.
I want to see objects classes of my dictionary in console log. As for standard NSObject subclasses, I override -(NSString*) description in category:
-(NSString*) description
{
NSMutableString* desc = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat: #"<%# 0x%08x>\nobjects count: %ld", [self class], (uint)self, [self count]];
for (id key in [self allKeys])
[desc appendFormat: #"\n%# = %# (%#)", key, [self objectForKey: key], [[self objectForKey: key] class]];
return desc;
}
It works, but only for top-level NSDictionary object (if the object has dictionaries in children they are logged bypassing description method). So NSDictionary prints its children objects in some way without calling description on them...
Is there an approach to log these children dictionaries through my description method?
PS: In practical situation I want to find an object in dictionary that can't be saved to plist. Maybe there is another solution, I would be thankful for that too.
You can write a recursive description method:
// Private Methods
#interface MyClass ()
- (NSString *)_description:(id)object;
#end
...
- (NSString *)_description:(id)object
{
if ([object isKindOfClass:[NSDictionary class]])
{
NSDictionary *dict = (NSDictionary *)object;
NSMutableString *desc = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat: #"<%# %p>\nobjects count: %ld", [dict class], dict, [dict count]];
for (id key in [dict allKeys])
{
[desc appendFormat: #"\n%# = %# (%#)", key, [self _description:[objectForKey: key]], [[self objectForKey: key] class]];
return desc;
}
}
else
{
return [(NSObject *)object description];
}
}
- (NSString *)description
{
return [self _description:self];
}
You'll probably want to pass an incrementing indentation counter so you can format the child objects better, but you should get the idea.
I need to read 3 values from a database and return them in a method. I'm having trouble to understand how to return values using NSInteger types. This is the code:
NSString* GetVerbInfinitive(FMDatabase* mydb, NSString* myConjugation, NSInteger verbal_time, NSInteger verbal_person)
{
NSMutableString *ret = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:#""];
FMResultSet *rs = [mydb executeQuery:#"select verb_text, conjugation_verbal_time, conjugation_verbal_person from verbs where verb_conjugation = ?",[[myConjugation lowercaseString] precomposedStringWithCanonicalMapping]];
if ([rs next])
{
if (![rs columnIndexIsNull:0])
{
[ret setString:[rs stringForColumn:#"verb_text"]];
verbal_time = [rs intForColumn:#"conjugation_verbal_time"];
verbal_person = [rs intForColumn:#"conjugation_verbal_person"];
}
else
{
NSLog(#"GetVerbInfinitive: verb '%#' has no infinitive defined", myConjugation);
}
}
[rs close];
return [ret autorelease];
}
The NSInteger values work only inside the method when I return to the calling method they are lost. I believe I should pass these NSInteger by reference, but I don't know how. I don't want to create a type structure for this.
Thanks,
Miguel
You have to dereference them as pointers. Here's an example (this goes in the code when you're calling the method):
NSInteger verbal_time, verbal_person;
GetVerbInfinitive(....., &verbal_time, &verbal_person);
Now in your getverbinfinitivemethod:
NSString* GetVerbInfinitive(FMDatabase* mydb, NSString* myConjugation, NSInteger *verbal_time, NSInteger *verbal_person)
{
...
...
*verbal_time = [rs intForColumn:#"conjugation_verbal_time"];
*verbal_person = [rs intForColumn:#"conjugation_verbal_person"];
...
...
}
Notice the change in the signature line to make those two NSIntegers pointers.
With all the URL-handling objects lying around in the standard Cocoa libraries (NSURL, NSMutableURL, NSMutableURLRequest, etc), I know I must be overlooking an easy way to programmatically compose a GET request.
Currently I'm manually appending "?" followed by name value pairs joined by "&", but all of my name and value pairs need to be manually encoded so NSMutableURLRequest doesn't fail entirely when it tries to connect to the URL.
This feels like something I should be able to use a pre-baked API for.... is there anything out of the box to append an NSDictionary of query parameters to an NSURL? Is there another way I should approach this?
Introduced in iOS8 and OS X 10.10 is NSURLQueryItem, which can be used to build queries. From the docs on NSURLQueryItem:
An NSURLQueryItem object represents a single name/value pair for an item in the query portion of a URL. You use query items with the queryItems property of an NSURLComponents object.
To create one use the designated initializer queryItemWithName:value: and then add them to NSURLComponents to generate an NSURL. For example:
NSURLComponents *components = [NSURLComponents componentsWithString:#"http://stackoverflow.com"];
NSURLQueryItem *search = [NSURLQueryItem queryItemWithName:#"q" value:#"ios"];
NSURLQueryItem *count = [NSURLQueryItem queryItemWithName:#"count" value:#"10"];
components.queryItems = #[ search, count ];
NSURL *url = components.URL; // http://stackoverflow.com?q=ios&count=10
Notice that the question mark and ampersand are automatically handled. Creating an NSURL from a dictionary of parameters is as simple as:
NSDictionary *queryDictionary = #{ #"q": #"ios", #"count": #"10" };
NSMutableArray *queryItems = [NSMutableArray array];
for (NSString *key in queryDictionary) {
[queryItems addObject:[NSURLQueryItem queryItemWithName:key value:queryDictionary[key]]];
}
components.queryItems = queryItems;
I've also written a blog post on how to build URLs with NSURLComponents and NSURLQueryItems.
You can create a category for NSDictionary to do this -- there isn't a standard way in the Cocoa library that I could find either. The code that I use looks like this:
// file "NSDictionary+UrlEncoding.h"
#import <cocoa/cocoa.h>
#interface NSDictionary (UrlEncoding)
-(NSString*) urlEncodedString;
#end
with this implementation:
// file "NSDictionary+UrlEncoding.m"
#import "NSDictionary+UrlEncoding.h"
// helper function: get the string form of any object
static NSString *toString(id object) {
return [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#", object];
}
// helper function: get the url encoded string form of any object
static NSString *urlEncode(id object) {
NSString *string = toString(object);
return [string stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding];
}
#implementation NSDictionary (UrlEncoding)
-(NSString*) urlEncodedString {
NSMutableArray *parts = [NSMutableArray array];
for (id key in self) {
id value = [self objectForKey: key];
NSString *part = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#=%#", urlEncode(key), urlEncode(value)];
[parts addObject: part];
}
return [parts componentsJoinedByString: #"&"];
}
#end
I think the code's pretty straightforward, but I discuss it in some more detail at http://blog.ablepear.com/2008/12/urlencoding-category-for-nsdictionary.html.
I wanted to use Chris's answer, but it wasn't written for Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) so I updated it. I thought I'd paste my solution in case anyone else has this same issue. Note: replace self with the instance or class name where appropriate.
+(NSString*)urlEscapeString:(NSString *)unencodedString
{
CFStringRef originalStringRef = (__bridge_retained CFStringRef)unencodedString;
NSString *s = (__bridge_transfer NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,originalStringRef, NULL, (CFStringRef)#"!*'\"();:#&=+$,/?%#[]% ", kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
CFRelease(originalStringRef);
return s;
}
+(NSString*)addQueryStringToUrlString:(NSString *)urlString withDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dictionary
{
NSMutableString *urlWithQuerystring = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:urlString];
for (id key in dictionary) {
NSString *keyString = [key description];
NSString *valueString = [[dictionary objectForKey:key] description];
if ([urlWithQuerystring rangeOfString:#"?"].location == NSNotFound) {
[urlWithQuerystring appendFormat:#"?%#=%#", [self urlEscapeString:keyString], [self urlEscapeString:valueString]];
} else {
[urlWithQuerystring appendFormat:#"&%#=%#", [self urlEscapeString:keyString], [self urlEscapeString:valueString]];
}
}
return urlWithQuerystring;
}
The other answers work great if the values are strings, however if the values are dictionaries or arrays then this code will handle that.
Its important to note that there is no standard way of passing an array/dictionary via the query string but PHP handles this output just fine
-(NSString *)serializeParams:(NSDictionary *)params {
/*
Convert an NSDictionary to a query string
*/
NSMutableArray* pairs = [NSMutableArray array];
for (NSString* key in [params keyEnumerator]) {
id value = [params objectForKey:key];
if ([value isKindOfClass:[NSDictionary class]]) {
for (NSString *subKey in value) {
NSString* escaped_value = (NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,
(CFStringRef)[value objectForKey:subKey],
NULL,
(CFStringRef)#"!*'();:#&=+$,/?%#[]",
kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#[%#]=%#", key, subKey, escaped_value]];
}
} else if ([value isKindOfClass:[NSArray class]]) {
for (NSString *subValue in value) {
NSString* escaped_value = (NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,
(CFStringRef)subValue,
NULL,
(CFStringRef)#"!*'();:#&=+$,/?%#[]",
kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#[]=%#", key, escaped_value]];
}
} else {
NSString* escaped_value = (NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,
(CFStringRef)[params objectForKey:key],
NULL,
(CFStringRef)#"!*'();:#&=+$,/?%#[]",
kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#=%#", key, escaped_value]];
[escaped_value release];
}
}
return [pairs componentsJoinedByString:#"&"];
}
Examples
[foo] => bar
[translations] =>
{
[one] => uno
[two] => dos
[three] => tres
}
foo=bar&translations[one]=uno&translations[two]=dos&translations[three]=tres
[foo] => bar
[translations] =>
{
uno
dos
tres
}
foo=bar&translations[]=uno&translations[]=dos&translations[]=tres
I refactored and converted to ARC answer by AlBeebe
- (NSString *)serializeParams:(NSDictionary *)params {
NSMutableArray *pairs = NSMutableArray.array;
for (NSString *key in params.keyEnumerator) {
id value = params[key];
if ([value isKindOfClass:[NSDictionary class]])
for (NSString *subKey in value)
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#[%#]=%#", key, subKey, [self escapeValueForURLParameter:[value objectForKey:subKey]]]];
else if ([value isKindOfClass:[NSArray class]])
for (NSString *subValue in value)
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#[]=%#", key, [self escapeValueForURLParameter:subValue]]];
else
[pairs addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#=%#", key, [self escapeValueForURLParameter:value]]];
}
return [pairs componentsJoinedByString:#"&"];
}
- (NSString *)escapeValueForURLParameter:(NSString *)valueToEscape {
return (__bridge_transfer NSString *) CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL, (__bridge CFStringRef) valueToEscape,
NULL, (CFStringRef) #"!*'();:#&=+$,/?%#[]", kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
}
If you are already using AFNetworking (as was the case with me), you can use it's class AFHTTPRequestSerializer to create the required NSURLRequest.
[[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] requestWithMethod:#"GET" URLString:#"YOUR_URL" parameters:#{PARAMS} error:nil];
In case you only require the URL for your work, use NSURLRequest.URL.
Here is a simple example in Swift (iOS8+):
private let kSNStockInfoFetchRequestPath: String = "http://dev.markitondemand.com/Api/v2/Quote/json"
private func SNStockInfoFetchRequestURL(symbol:String) -> NSURL? {
if let components = NSURLComponents(string:kSNStockInfoFetchRequestPath) {
components.queryItems = [NSURLQueryItem(name:"symbol", value:symbol)]
return components.URL
}
return nil
}
I took Joel's recommendation of using URLQueryItems and turned into a Swift Extension (Swift 3)
extension URL
{
/// Creates an NSURL with url-encoded parameters.
init?(string : String, parameters : [String : String])
{
guard var components = URLComponents(string: string) else { return nil }
components.queryItems = parameters.map { return URLQueryItem(name: $0, value: $1) }
guard let url = components.url else { return nil }
// Kinda redundant, but we need to call init.
self.init(string: url.absoluteString)
}
}
(The self.init method is kinda cheesy, but there was no NSURL init with components)
Can be used as
URL(string: "http://www.google.com/", parameters: ["q" : "search me"])
I've got another solution:
http://splinter.com.au/build-a-url-query-string-in-obj-c-from-a-dict
+(NSString*)urlEscape:(NSString *)unencodedString {
NSString *s = (NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,
(CFStringRef)unencodedString,
NULL,
(CFStringRef)#"!*'\"();:#&=+$,/?%#[]% ",
kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
return [s autorelease]; // Due to the 'create rule' we own the above and must autorelease it
}
// Put a query string onto the end of a url
+(NSString*)addQueryStringToUrl:(NSString *)url params:(NSDictionary *)params {
NSMutableString *urlWithQuerystring = [[[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:url] autorelease];
// Convert the params into a query string
if (params) {
for(id key in params) {
NSString *sKey = [key description];
NSString *sVal = [[params objectForKey:key] description];
// Do we need to add ?k=v or &k=v ?
if ([urlWithQuerystring rangeOfString:#"?"].location==NSNotFound) {
[urlWithQuerystring appendFormat:#"?%#=%#", [Http urlEscape:sKey], [Http urlEscape:sVal]];
} else {
[urlWithQuerystring appendFormat:#"&%#=%#", [Http urlEscape:sKey], [Http urlEscape:sVal]];
}
}
}
return urlWithQuerystring;
}
You can then use it like so:
NSDictionary *params = #{#"username":#"jim", #"password":#"abc123"};
NSString *urlWithQuerystring = [self addQueryStringToUrl:#"https://myapp.com/login" params:params];
-(NSString*)encodeDictionary:(NSDictionary*)dictionary{
NSMutableString *bodyData = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];
int i = 0;
for (NSString *key in dictionary.allKeys) {
i++;
[bodyData appendFormat:#"%#=",key];
NSString *value = [dictionary valueForKey:key];
NSString *newString = [value stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#" " withString:#"+"];
[bodyData appendString:newString];
if (i < dictionary.allKeys.count) {
[bodyData appendString:#"&"];
}
}
return bodyData;
}
Yet another solution, if you use RestKit there's a function in RKURLEncodedSerialization called RKURLEncodedStringFromDictionaryWithEncoding that does exactly what you want.
Simple way of converting NSDictionary to url query string in Objective-c
Ex: first_name=Steve&middle_name=Gates&last_name=Jobs&address=Palo Alto, California
NSDictionary *sampleDictionary = #{#"first_name" : #"Steve",
#"middle_name" : #"Gates",
#"last_name" : #"Jobs",
#"address" : #"Palo Alto, California"};
NSMutableString *resultString = [NSMutableString string];
for (NSString* key in [sampleDictionary allKeys]){
if ([resultString length]>0)
[resultString appendString:#"&"];
[resultString appendFormat:#"%#=%#", key, [sampleDictionary objectForKey:key]];
}
NSLog(#"QueryString: %#", resultString);
Hope will help :)
If you are already using AFNetwork, you can use their built in serializer to to produce an encoded URL;
NSString *baseURL = #"https://api.app.com/parse";
NSDictionary *mutableParameters = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:#"true",#"option1", data, #"option2", token, #"token", #"3.0", #"app", nil];
NSURLRequest *request = [[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] requestWithMethod:#"GET" URLString:baseURL parameters:mutableParameters error:nil];
NSString *urlPath = request.URL.absoluteString;
NSLog(#"%#", urlPath); // https://api.app.com/parse?option1=true&option2=datavalue&token=200%3ATEST%3AENCODE ....
Note; this is an extension to an above answer. The edit queue is full so cannot be added to the existing answer.