I have a struct that implements Swift 4’s Codable
. Is there a simple built-in way to encode that struct into a dictionary?
let struct = Foo(a: 1, b: 2)
let dict = something(struct)
// now dict is ["a": 1, "b": 2]
I have a struct that implements Swift 4’s Codable
. Is there a simple built-in way to encode that struct into a dictionary?
let struct = Foo(a: 1, b: 2)
let dict = something(struct)
// now dict is ["a": 1, "b": 2]
If you don't mind a bit of shifting of data around you could use something like this:
extension Encodable {
func asDictionary() throws -> [String: Any] {
let data = try JSONEncoder().encode(self)
guard let dictionary = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: .allowFragments) as? [String: Any] else {
throw NSError()
}
return dictionary
}
}
Or an optional variant
extension Encodable {
var dictionary: [String: Any]? {
guard let data = try? JSONEncoder().encode(self) else { return nil }
return (try? JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: .allowFragments)).flatMap { $0 as? [String: Any] }
}
}
Assuming Foo
conforms to Codable
or really Encodable
then you can do this.
let struct = Foo(a: 1, b: 2)
let dict = try struct.asDictionary()
let optionalDict = struct.dictionary
If you want to go the other way(init(any)
), take a look at this Init an object conforming to Codable with a dictionary/array
I have create a library called CodableFirebase and it's initial purpose was to use it with Firebase Database, but it does actually what you need: it creates a dictionary or any other type just like in JSONDecoder
but you don't need to do the double conversion here like you do in other answers. So it would look something like:
import CodableFirebase
let model = Foo(a: 1, b: 2)
let dict = try! FirebaseEncoder().encode(model)
I'm not sure if it's the best way but you definitely can do something like:
struct Foo: Codable {
var a: Int
var b: Int
init(a: Int, b: Int) {
self.a = a
self.b = b
}
}
let foo = Foo(a: 1, b: 2)
let dict = try JSONDecoder().decode([String: Int].self, from: JSONEncoder().encode(foo))
print(dict)
Here are simple implementations of DictionaryEncoder
/ DictionaryDecoder
that wrap JSONEncoder
, JSONDecoder
and JSONSerialization
, that also handle encoding / decoding strategies…
class DictionaryEncoder {
private let encoder = JSONEncoder()
var dateEncodingStrategy: JSONEncoder.DateEncodingStrategy {
set { encoder.dateEncodingStrategy = newValue }
get { return encoder.dateEncodingStrategy }
}
var dataEncodingStrategy: JSONEncoder.DataEncodingStrategy {
set { encoder.dataEncodingStrategy = newValue }
get { return encoder.dataEncodingStrategy }
}
var nonConformingFloatEncodingStrategy: JSONEncoder.NonConformingFloatEncodingStrategy {
set { encoder.nonConformingFloatEncodingStrategy = newValue }
get { return encoder.nonConformingFloatEncodingStrategy }
}
var keyEncodingStrategy: JSONEncoder.KeyEncodingStrategy {
set { encoder.keyEncodingStrategy = newValue }
get { return encoder.keyEncodingStrategy }
}
func encode<T>(_ value: T) throws -> [String: Any] where T : Encodable {
let data = try encoder.encode(value)
return try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: .allowFragments) as! [String: Any]
}
}
class DictionaryDecoder {
private let decoder = JSONDecoder()
var dateDecodingStrategy: JSONDecoder.DateDecodingStrategy {
set { decoder.dateDecodingStrategy = newValue }
get { return decoder.dateDecodingStrategy }
}
var dataDecodingStrategy: JSONDecoder.DataDecodingStrategy {
set { decoder.dataDecodingStrategy = newValue }
get { return decoder.dataDecodingStrategy }
}
var nonConformingFloatDecodingStrategy: JSONDecoder.NonConformingFloatDecodingStrategy {
set { decoder.nonConformingFloatDecodingStrategy = newValue }
get { return decoder.nonConformingFloatDecodingStrategy }
}
var keyDecodingStrategy: JSONDecoder.KeyDecodingStrategy {
set { decoder.keyDecodingStrategy = newValue }
get { return decoder.keyDecodingStrategy }
}
func decode<T>(_ type: T.Type, from dictionary: [String: Any]) throws -> T where T : Decodable {
let data = try JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: dictionary, options: [])
return try decoder.decode(type, from: data)
}
}
Usage is similar to JSONEncoder
/ JSONDecoder
…
let dictionary = try DictionaryEncoder().encode(object)
and
let object = try DictionaryDecoder().decode(Object.self, from: dictionary)
For convenience, I've put this all in a repo… https://github.com/ashleymills/SwiftDictionaryCoding
I definitely think that there's some value in just being able to use Codable
to encode to/from dictionaries, without the intention of ever hitting JSON/Plists/whatever. There are plenty of APIs which just give you back a dictionary, or expect a dictionary, and it's nice to be able to interchange them easily with Swift structs or objects, without having to write endless boilerplate code.
I've been playing round with some code based on the Foundation JSONEncoder.swift source (which actually does implement dictionary encoding/decoding internally, but doesn't export it).
The code can be found here: https://github.com/elegantchaos/DictionaryCoding
It's still quite rough, but I've expanded it a bit so that, for example, it can fill in missing values with defaults when decoding.
I have modified the PropertyListEncoder from the Swift project into a DictionaryEncoder, simply by removing the final serialisation from dictionary into binary format. You can do the same yourself, or you can take my code from here
It can be used like this:
do {
let employeeDictionary: [String: Any] = try DictionaryEncoder().encode(employee)
} catch let error {
// handle error
}
In some project, i'm used the swift reflection. But be careful, nested codable objects, are not mapped also there.
let dict = Dictionary(uniqueKeysWithValues: Mirror(reflecting: foo).children.map{ ($0.label!, $0.value) })
There is no built in way to do that.
As answered above if you have no performance issues then you can accept the JSONEncoder
+ JSONSerialization
implementation.
But I would rather go the standard library's way to provide an encoder/decoder object.
class DictionaryEncoder {
private let jsonEncoder = JSONEncoder()
/// Encodes given Encodable value into an array or dictionary
func encode<T>(_ value: T) throws -> Any where T: Encodable {
let jsonData = try jsonEncoder.encode(value)
return try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: jsonData, options: .allowFragments)
}
}
class DictionaryDecoder {
private let jsonDecoder = JSONDecoder()
/// Decodes given Decodable type from given array or dictionary
func decode<T>(_ type: T.Type, from json: Any) throws -> T where T: Decodable {
let jsonData = try JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: json, options: [])
return try jsonDecoder.decode(type, from: jsonData)
}
}
You can try it with following code:
struct Computer: Codable {
var owner: String?
var cpuCores: Int
var ram: Double
}
let computer = Computer(owner: "5keeve", cpuCores: 8, ram: 4)
let dictionary = try! DictionaryEncoder().encode(computer)
let decodedComputer = try! DictionaryDecoder().decode(Computer.self, from: dictionary)
I am force-trying here to make the example shorter. In production code you should handle the errors appropriately.
let dict = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: try JSONEncoder().encode(struct), options: []) as? [String: Any]
I wrote a quick gist to handle this (not using the Codable protocol). Be careful, it doesn't type-check any values and doesn't work recursively on values that are encodable.
class DictionaryEncoder {
var result: [String: Any]
init() {
result = [:]
}
func encode(_ encodable: DictionaryEncodable) -> [String: Any] {
encodable.encode(self)
return result
}
func encode<T, K>(_ value: T, key: K) where K: RawRepresentable, K.RawValue == String {
result[key.rawValue] = value
}
}
protocol DictionaryEncodable {
func encode(_ encoder: DictionaryEncoder)
}
There no straight forward way of doing this in Codable. You need to implement Encodable/Decodable protocol for your struct. For your example, you might need to write as below
typealias EventDict = [String:Int]
struct Favorite {
var all:EventDict
init(all: EventDict = [:]) {
self.all = all
}
}
extension Favorite: Encodable {
struct FavoriteKey: CodingKey {
var stringValue: String
init?(stringValue: String) {
self.stringValue = stringValue
}
var intValue: Int? { return nil }
init?(intValue: Int) { return nil }
}
func encode(to encoder: Encoder) throws {
var container = encoder.container(keyedBy: FavoriteKey.self)
for eventId in all {
let nameKey = FavoriteKey(stringValue: eventId.key)!
try container.encode(eventId.value, forKey: nameKey)
}
}
}
extension Favorite: Decodable {
public init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
var events = EventDict()
let container = try decoder.container(keyedBy: FavoriteKey.self)
for key in container.allKeys {
let fav = try container.decode(Int.self, forKey: key)
events[key.stringValue] = fav
}
self.init(all: events)
}
}
Come to think of it, the question does not have an answer in the general case, since the Encodable
instance may be something not serializable into a dictionary, such as an array:
let payload = [1, 2, 3]
let encoded = try JSONEncoder().encode(payload) // "[1,2,3]"
Other than that, I have written something similar as a framework.