dynamic naming of fields in nsmutable array? - objective-c

Question

I hope i can explain this clearly.
I have a NSMutableArray * myMut.
I have user input in the form of an NSString * anyoldString.
I have user input of some numeric values stored in the variable someNumber;
As users input their string and values, I want to update myMut, and name the fields anyoldString
like this: myMut.anyoldString=someNumber;
depending on the user's input, the name will be different of course
i'm new to objective c.
in Matlab, I would do this:
myMut.(anyoldString)=someNumer.
I know that's too easy for objective c! but any fast way to do this??

Answer 1

You'll probably want to do something like so:
NSMutableDictionary *myMutableDictionary; // A mutable **dictionary**, not an array!
NSInteger someNumber; // filled by the number
NSString *key; // filled by anyOldString
[myMutableDictionary setObject:[NSNumber numberWithInteger:someNumber] forKey:key];
NSArray and friends aren't associative; but indexed. What you want is NSDictionary and friends; your friendly neighborhood key-value mapping!
Edit: For funsies; getting someNumber back out, given anyOldString:
NSMutableDictionary *myMutableDictionary; // The same dictionary as above
NSInteger someNumber; // out number
NSString *key; // filled by anyOldString
NSNumber *storedNumber = [myMutableDictionary objectForKey:key];
if (storedNumber) {
someNumber = [storedNumber integerValue];
} else {
someNumber = APPLICATION_APPROPRIATE_DEFAULT_VALUE;
}