How to access deeply nested dictionaries in Swift

Question

I have a pretty complex data structure in my app, which I need to manipulate. I am trying to keep track of how many types of bugs a player has in thier garden. There are te

Answer 1

If it's only about retrieval (not manipulation) then here's a Dictionary extension for Swift 3 (code ready for pasting into Xcode playground) :

//extension
extension Dictionary where Key: Hashable, Value: Any {
    func getValue(forKeyPath components : Array) -> Any? {
        var comps = components;
        let key = comps.remove(at: 0)
        if let k = key as? Key {
            if(comps.count == 0) {
                return self[k]
            }
            if let v = self[k] as? Dictionary {
                return v.getValue(forKeyPath : comps)
            }
        }
        return nil
    }
}

//read json
let json = "{\"a\":{\"b\":\"bla\"},\"val\":10}" //
if let parsed = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: json.data(using: .utf8)!, options: JSONSerialization.ReadingOptions.mutableContainers) as? Dictionary
{
    parsed.getValue(forKeyPath: ["a","b"]) //-> "bla"
    parsed.getValue(forKeyPath: ["val"]) //-> 10
}

//dictionary with different key types
let test : Dictionary = ["a" : ["b" : ["c" : "bla"]], 0 : [ 1 : [ 2 : "bla"]], "four" : [ 5 : "bla"]]
test.getValue(forKeyPath: ["a","b","c"]) //-> "bla"
test.getValue(forKeyPath: ["a","b"]) //-> ["c": "bla"]
test.getValue(forKeyPath: [0,1,2]) //-> "bla"
test.getValue(forKeyPath: ["four",5]) //-> "bla"
test.getValue(forKeyPath: ["a","b","d"]) //-> nil

//dictionary with strings as keys
let test2 = ["one" : [ "two" : "three"]]
test2.getValue(forKeyPath: ["one","two"]) //-> "three"