Best way to save to nsuserdefaults for custom class?

Question

If I have a custom class Person which has three variables (which are propertized and synthesized):

NSString* theName;
float* theHeight;
int theAge;


        

Answer 1

I find implementing encodeWithCoder and initWithCoder quite boring, especially if you have many attributes in your class, and many classes to save to NSUserDefaults.

I create a library RMMapper (https://github.com/roomorama/RMMapper) to help save custom object into NSUserDefaults easier and more convenient.

To mark a class as archivable, just use: #import "NSObject+RMArchivable.h"

To save a custom object into NSUserDefaults:

#import "NSUserDefaults+RMSaveCustomObject.h"

NSUserDefaults* defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
[defaults rm_setCustomObject:user forKey:@"SAVED_DATA"];

To get custom obj from NSUserDefaults:

user = [defaults rm_customObjectForKey:@"SAVED_DATA"]; 

Answer 2

@Brad Smith's answer is not complete, and even is incorrect in some sense. We have to use NSKeyedArchiver and NSKeyedUnarchiver as follows:

Make your class (for example in this case Person) to conform to protocol NSCoding and implement both the methods as:

- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)decoder {
    self = [super init];
    if(self) {
        self.name = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:<key_for_property_name>];
        // as height is a pointer
        *self.height = [decoder decodeFloatForKey:<key_for_property_height>];
        self.age = [decoder decodeIntForKey:<key_for_property_age>];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)encoder {
    [encoder encodeObject:self.name forKey:<key_for_property_name>];
    //as height is a pointer
    [encoder encodeFloat:*self.height forKey:<key_for_property_height>]
    [encoder encodeInt:self.age forKey:<key_for_property_age>];
}

Using NSUserDefaults

// Write to NSUserDefaults
NSData *archivedObject = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:<your_class_object>];
NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
[defaults setObject:archivedObject forKey:<key_for_archived_object>];
[defaults synchronize];

// Read from NSUserDefaults
NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
NSData *archivedObject = [defaults objectForKey:<key_for_archived_object>];
<your_class> *obj = (<your_class> *)[NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:archivedObject];