How to group an NSMutableArray and show in UITable

Question

I get json from server and add them in NSMutableArray like this:

{
  "title": "title60",
  "summary": "summary60",
  "datetime": "2013.02.03",
}
{
  "id": 58,
  "title": "title59",
  "summary": "summary59",
  "datetime": "2013.02.03",
},
{
  "id": 57,
  "title": "title58",
  "summary": "summary58",
  "datetime": "2013.02.04",
},
{
  "id": 56,
  "title": "title57",
  "summary": "summary57",
  "datetime": "2013.02.04",
},
{
  "id": 55,
  "title": "title56",
  "summary": "summary56",
  "datetime": "2013.02.05",
}

How can I use the NSMutableArray group by "datetime" and show in uitableview?

Answer 1

You can roll your own data structures for this, but the TLIndexPathTools library automatically sections your table when you specify a sectionNameKeyPath, which in this case is just going to be "datetime". I put a working example with your data up on GitHub. Try running the JSON example project. The full source of the view controller is as follows:

#import "TLTableViewController.h"

@interface JSONTableViewController : TLTableViewController
@end

#import "JSONTableViewController.h"
#import "TLIndexPathDataModel.h"

@implementation JSONTableViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    //simulated JSON response as an array of dictionaries
    NSArray *jsonData = @[
        @{
            @"id": @(58),
            @"title": @"title59",
            @"summary": @"summary59",
            @"datetime": @"2013.02.03",
        },
        @{
            @"id": @(57),
            @"title": @"title58",
            @"summary": @"summary58",
            @"datetime": @"2013.02.04",
        },
        @{
            @"id": @(56),
            @"title": @"title57",
            @"summary": @"summary57",
            @"datetime": @"2013.02.04",
        },
        @{
            @"id": @(55),
            @"title": @"title56",
            @"summary": @"summary56",
            @"datetime": @"2013.02.05",
        }
    ];

    //initialize index path controller with a data model containing JSON data.
    //using "datetime" as the `sectionNameKeyPath` automatically groups items
    //by "datetime".
    self.indexPathController.dataModel = [[TLIndexPathDataModel alloc] initWithItems:jsonData
                                                            andSectionNameKeyPath:@"datetime"
                                                             andIdentifierKeyPath:@"id"];
}

- (void)configureCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    NSDictionary *dict = [self.indexPathController.dataModel itemAtIndexPath:indexPath];
    cell.textLabel.text = dict[@"title"];
    cell.detailTextLabel.text = dict[@"summary"];
}

@end