Plist Array to NSDictionary

Question

I have a plist:

  
    
      name
      Alabama
          


        

Answer 1

A more flexible way to load plists into memory, that also allows you to create mutable plists:

NSData* data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:path];
NSMutableArray* plist = [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListFromData:data
                                                         mutabilityOption:NSPropertyListImmutable
                                                                   format:NSPropertyListXMLFormat_v1_0
                                                         errorDescription:NULL];

Thus your code could be implemented as:

NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"stateInfo" ofType:@"plist"];
NSData* data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:path];
NSMutableArray* array = [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListFromData:data
                                                         mutabilityOption:NSPropertyListImmutable
                                                                   format:NSPropertyListXMLFormat_v1_0
                                                         errorDescription:NULL];
if (array) {
  NSMutableDictionary* myDict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithCapacity:[array count]];
  for (NSDictionary* dict in array) {
    State* state = [[State alloc] initWithDictionary:dict];
    [myDict setObject:state forKey:state.name;
    [state release];
  }
  NSLog(@"The count: %i", [myDic count]);
} else {
  NSLog(@"Plist does not exist");
}