How do I use custom keys with Swift 4's Decodable protocol?

Question

Swift 4 introduced support for native JSON encoding and decoding via the Decodable protocol. How do I use custom keys for this?

E.g., say I have a struct

<         


        

Answer 1

What I have done is create own structure just like what you are getting from the JSON with respect to its data types.

Just like this:

struct Track {
let id : Int
let contributingArtistNames:String
let name : String
let albumName :String
let copyrightP:String
let copyrightC:String
let playlistCount:Int
let trackPopularity:Int
let playlistFollowerCount:Int
let artistFollowerCount : Int
let label : String
}

After this you need to create an extension of the same struct extending decodable and the enum of the same structure with CodingKey and then you need to initialize the decoder using this enum with its keys and datatypes (Keys will come from the enum and the datatypes will be coming or say referenced from the structure itself)

extension Track: Decodable {

    enum TrackCodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
        case id = "id"
        case contributingArtistNames = "primaryArtistsNames"
        case spotifyId = "spotifyId"
        case name = "name"
        case albumName = "albumName"
        case albumImageUrl = "albumImageUrl"
        case copyrightP = "copyrightP"
        case copyrightC = "copyrightC"
        case playlistCount = "playlistCount"
        case trackPopularity = "trackPopularity"
        case playlistFollowerCount = "playlistFollowerCount"
        case artistFollowerCount = "artistFollowers"
        case label = "label"
    }
    init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
        let trackContainer = try decoder.container(keyedBy: TrackCodingKeys.self)
        if trackContainer.contains(.id){
            id = try trackContainer.decode(Int.self, forKey: .id)
        }else{
            id = 0
        }
        if trackContainer.contains(.contributingArtistNames){
            contributingArtistNames = try trackContainer.decode(String.self, forKey: .contributingArtistNames)
        }else{
            contributingArtistNames = ""
        }
        if trackContainer.contains(.spotifyId){
            spotifyId = try trackContainer.decode(String.self, forKey: .spotifyId)
        }else{
            spotifyId = ""
        }
        if trackContainer.contains(.name){
            name = try trackContainer.decode(String.self, forKey: .name)
        }else{
            name = ""
        }
        if trackContainer.contains(.albumName){
            albumName = try trackContainer.decode(String.self, forKey: .albumName)
        }else{
            albumName = ""
        }
        if trackContainer.contains(.albumImageUrl){
            albumImageUrl = try trackContainer.decode(String.self, forKey: .albumImageUrl)
        }else{
            albumImageUrl = ""
        }
        if trackContainer.contains(.copyrightP){
            copyrightP = try trackContainer.decode(String.self, forKey: .copyrightP)
        }else{
            copyrightP = ""
        }
        if trackContainer.contains(.copyrightC){
                copyrightC = try trackContainer.decode(String.self, forKey: .copyrightC)
        }else{
            copyrightC = ""
        }
        if trackContainer.contains(.playlistCount){
            playlistCount = try trackContainer.decode(Int.self, forKey: .playlistCount)
        }else{
            playlistCount = 0
        }

        if trackContainer.contains(.trackPopularity){
            trackPopularity = try trackContainer.decode(Int.self, forKey: .trackPopularity)
        }else{
            trackPopularity = 0
        }
        if trackContainer.contains(.playlistFollowerCount){
            playlistFollowerCount = try trackContainer.decode(Int.self, forKey: .playlistFollowerCount)
        }else{
            playlistFollowerCount = 0
        }

        if trackContainer.contains(.artistFollowerCount){
            artistFollowerCount = try trackContainer.decode(Int.self, forKey: .artistFollowerCount)
        }else{
            artistFollowerCount = 0
        }
        if trackContainer.contains(.label){
            label = try trackContainer.decode(String.self, forKey: .label)
        }else{
            label = ""
        }
    }
}

You need to change here each and every key and datatypes according to your needs and use it with the decoder.