Should I use NSUserDefaults or a plist to store data?

Question

I will be storing a few strings (maybe 10-20). I am not sure if I should use NSUserDefaults to save them, or write them out to a plist. What is considered best practice? NSU

Answer 1

Using a plist is a good choice for storing your strings if the strings are not just user settings that can go in NSUserDefaults. As was mentioned, when using a plist you must store your plist in the Documents directory in order to write to it, because you can't write into your own app's resources. When I first learned this, I wasn't clear on where your own app's Bundle directory was vs. where the Documents directory was, so I thought I'd post example code here that first copies a plist called "Strings.plist" (that you already have in your own app's Bundle directory) to the Documents directory, and then writes to it and reads from it.

// Make a path to the plist in the Documents directory
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *stringsPlistPathIndDoc = [[paths objectAtIndex:0] stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"Strings.plist"];

// Make a path to the plist in your app's Bundle directory
NSString *stringsPlistPathInBundle = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"Strings" ofType:@".plist"];

NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];

// Check first that you haven't already copied this plist to the Documents directory
if (![fileManager fileExistsAtPath:stringsPlistPathIndDoc])
{
    NSError *error;

    // Copy the plist from the Bundle directory to the Documents directory 
    [fileManager copyItemAtPath:stringsPlistPathInBundle toPath:stringsPlistPathIndDoc error:&error];
}

// Write your array out to the plist in the Documents directory
NSMutableArray *stringsArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"string1", @"string2", @"string3", nil]; 
[stringsArray writeToFile:stringsPlistPathIndDoc atomically:YES];

// Later if you want to read it:
stringsArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:stringsPlistPathIndDoc];