How to get itemChild Array from plist into table 2 ?????

Question

Hi there,
I am creating a project for the IPhone, using UITableViews.
I have been looking at James' code and trying to adapt it.
My project has two tableviews, and two tableview controllers. THe plist is an Array of dictionaries and each dictionary houses a name string and an ItemChild Array.
The dictionary names go into the first table no problem but I can get the ItemChild Arrays into the second table.
here is the shape of the plist.
<array>
<dict>
<key>name</key>
<string>Category A</string>
<key>ItemChild</key>
<array>
<string>aaaa</string>
<string>bbbb</string>
<string>cccc</string>
<string>dddd</string>
</array>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>name</key>
<string>Category B</string>
<key>ItemChild</key>
<array>
<string>aaaa</string>
<string>bbbb</string>
<string>cccc</string>
<string>dddd</string>
</array>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>name</key>
<string>Category C</string>
<key>ItemChild</key>
<array>
<string>aaaa</string>
<string>bbbb</string>
<string>cccc</string>
<string>dddd</string>
</array>
</dict>
</array>
</plist>
here are the implementation files for the first and second tableviewControllers
@implementation TableTutViewController
@synthesize dataList1;
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"newData" ofType:@"plist"];
NSMutableArray* tmpArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]
initWithContentsOfFile:path];
self.dataList1 = tmpArray;
[tmpArray release];
#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Table view data source
- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
return 1;
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
return dataList1.count;
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault
reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
cell.textLabel.text = [[self.dataList1 objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]
objectForKey:@"name"]; cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator;
return cell;
#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Table view delegate
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
SecondViewController *secondViewController = [[SecondViewController alloc]
initWithNibName:@"SecondViewController" bundle:nil];
secondViewController.dataList1 = [[self.dataList1 objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]objectForKey:@"ItemChild"];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:secondViewController animated:YES];
[secondViewController release];
#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Memory management
- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning {
[super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
- (void)viewDidUnload {
- (void)dealloc {
[super dealloc];
@end
And here is the code for the secondViewController
#import "SecondViewController.h"
#import "TableTutAppDelegate.h"
#import "TableTutViewController.h"
@implementation SecondViewController
@synthesize dataList1;
- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning {
[super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
- (void)viewDidUnload {
#pragma mark Table view methods
- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
return 1;
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
return [self.dataList1 count];
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
cell.textLabel.text = [[self.dataList1 objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]
objectForKey:@"ItemChild"];
cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator;
return cell;
- (void)dealloc {
[dataList1 release];
[super dealloc];
@end
Any idea's on what is missing would be great. Do I need to create a new array to put the itemChild array into before loading it into the cell.textLabel.text??
Any help would be fantastic,
thanks
Alex
Message was edited by: alex200

Answer 1

Hey Alex, welcome to the Dev Forum!
alex200 wrote:
I have been looking at James' code and trying to adapt it.
Have you been looking at James as well? I'm wondering if you two are at the same school.
The dictionary names go into the first table no problem but I can get the ItemChild Arrays into the second table.
Actually you passed the ItemChild arrays correctly (assuming dataList1 is declared as shown), but when you wanted the name for each element, you forgot that ItemChild was an array of strings, not an array of dictionaries:
// SecondViewController.h
@interface SecondViewController : UITableViewController {
NSMutableArray *dataList1;
@property (nonatomic, retain) NSMutableArray *dataList1;
@end
// SecondViewController.m
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
cell.textLabel.text = [self.dataList1 objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]; // <-- dataList1 is an array of strings
// objectForKey:@"ItemChild"];
cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator;
return cell;
Other than the above, there wasn't much to correct. I just set the title of the first controller's nav item, since that's needed to display the default return button in the second controller's nav bar (but you probably had set that title in IB), and I also passed the name of the selected Category row to the second controller's nav item:
// TableTutViewController.m
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
self.navigationItem.title = @"Categories"; // <-- added in case title isn't in xib
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
SecondViewController *secondViewController = [[SecondViewController alloc]
initWithNibName:@"SecondViewController" bundle:nil];
secondViewController.dataList1 =
[[self.dataList1 objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]objectForKey:@"ItemChild"];
secondViewController.navigationItem.title =
[[self.dataList1 objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]objectForKey:@"name"]; // <-- add title
[self.navigationController pushViewController:secondViewController animated:YES];
[secondViewController release];
Overall it looks like you did a nice job. I think ItemChild was an array of dictionaries in James' plist, so that might be the reason your code matched his plist instead of yours.
- Ray