Simple and clean way to convert JSON string to Object in Swift

Question

I have been searching for days to convert a fairly simple JSON string to an object type in Swift but with no avail.

Here is the code for web service call:

Answer 1

As simple String extension should suffice:

extension String {

    var parseJSONString: AnyObject? {

        let data = self.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding, allowLossyConversion: false)

        if let jsonData = data {
            // Will return an object or nil if JSON decoding fails
            return NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(jsonData, options: NSJSONReadingOptions.MutableContainers, error: nil)
        } else {
            // Lossless conversion of the string was not possible
            return nil
        }
    }
}

Then:

var jsonString = "[\n" +
    "{\n" +
    "\"id\":72,\n" +
    "\"name\":\"Batata Cremosa\",\n" +            
    "},\n" +
    "{\n" +
    "\"id\":183,\n" +
    "\"name\":\"Caldeirada de Peixes\",\n" +            
    "},\n" +
    "{\n" +
    "\"id\":76,\n" +
    "\"name\":\"Batata com Cebola e Ervas\",\n" +            
    "},\n" +
    "{\n" +
    "\"id\":56,\n" +
    "\"name\":\"Arroz de forma\",\n" +            
"}]"

let json: AnyObject? = jsonString.parseJSONString
println("Parsed JSON: \(json!)")
println("json[3]: \(json![3])")

/* Output:

Parsed JSON: (
    {
    id = 72;
    name = "Batata Cremosa";
    },
    {
    id = 183;
    name = "Caldeirada de Peixes";
    },
    {
    id = 76;
    name = "Batata com Cebola e Ervas";
    },
    {
    id = 56;
    name = "Arroz de forma";
    }
)

json[3]: {
    id = 56;
    name = "Arroz de forma";
}
*/