Swift accessing response from function

Question

I am producing a GET request, which gives me JSON object of array within dictionaries in this format:

Array>


        

Answer 1

The problem is that you are trying to network synchronously, and you can't. Actually, you are networking asynchronously, which is correct, but you are forgetting that networking is asynchronous.

Let's look at your code:

func getFoodRequest(){
    Alamofire.request("http://127.0.0.1:5000/get_food").responseJSON {
        response in
        let result = response.result.value
        self.jsonData = result as! Array<Dictionary<String,String>> // B
    }
}

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
    getFoodRequest() // A      
    return jsonData!.count // C
}   

Look at the letter comments I've added. You seem to think that the code executes in the order A,B,C. It doesn't. It executes in the order A,C,B. That's because getting your response takes time and happens on a background thread, and meanwhile your numberOfRowsInSection has gone right ahead and executed the next line and finished.