Getting value from NSDictionary to NSMutableArray

Question

I have this NSDictionary:

Categorys =     {
        Category =         (
                        {
                categoryDescription =                 {
                    text = "  Description";
                };
                categoryIconPath =                 {
                    text = "  7.jpg";
                };
                categoryId =                 {
                    text = "  25";
                };
                categoryName =                 {
                    text = "  My Photos";
                };
                categoryStatus =                 {
                    text = "  ON";
                };
                publicPrivate =                 {
                    text = "  Private";
                };
                userId =                 {
                    text = "  2";
                };
            },
.................. 

I want to get the categoryName (like here My Photos) into my NSArray.

How can I do this?

I am unable to get it

I have tried this code from http://troybrant.net/blog/2010/09/simple-xml-to-nsdictionary-converter/

NSString *category = [[[[xmlDictionary objectForKey:@"Categorys"] objectForKey:@"Category"] objectForKey:@"categoryName"] stringForKey:@"text"];

but it gives error

2012-03-27 15:30:35.320 File[1481:903] -[NSCFArray objectForKey:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x1462c0

Answer 1

In Categories, the object referenced by the Category key is an array, you can tell by the fact that its contents are bracketed by parentheses ( ... ) not braces { ... } .

Looking at your code and breaking it down:

NSString *category = [[[[xmlDictionary objectForKey:@"Categorys"] // This is the outermost dictionary 
                            objectForKey:@"Category"]             // This is an NSArray
                                objectForKey:@"categoryName"] stringForKey:@"text"]; 
                                                  // This breaks NSArray doesn't respond to objectForKey:

Breaking it down a bit, you need:

NSDictionary* categorys = [xmlDictionary objectForKey:@"Categorys"];
NSArray* categoryArray = [categorys objectForKey: @"Category"];
NSDictionary* category = [categoryArray objectAtIndex: i];  // i is the index of the category you want e.g. 0
// etc

Answer 2

The answer is in the error message. One of the objects that you are getting from

NSString *category = [[[[xmlDictionary objectForKey:@"Categorys"] objectForKey:@"Category"] objectForKey:@"categoryName"] stringForKey:@"text"];

Doesn't have the selector objectForKey .

Now you need to break down your code and do some debugging to find out where you are going wrong.

Answer 3

Was getting the same error "[NSCFArray objectForKey:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance"

When I looked at the structure of my plist file that was loaded from the bundle at runtime, it did not seem possible that I was using the wrong selectors. The problem is that when I ran the app, it was not pulling the original plist from the bundle, it was pulling a saved plist from my apps directory. Because the saved plist had an incorrect, and completely different structure than my original plist, I indeed was using the wrong selectors.