Generate JSON string from NSDictionary in iOS

Question

I have a dictionary I need to generate a JSON string by using dictionary. Is it possible to convert it? Can you guys please help on this?

Answer 1

Now no need third party classes ios 5 introduced Nsjsonserialization

NSString *urlString=@"Your url";
NSString *urlUTF8 = [urlString stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSURL *url=[[NSURL alloc]initWithString:urlUTF8];
NSURLRequest *request=[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];

NSURLResponse *response;

NSData *GETReply = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request returningResponse:&response error:nil];

NSError *myError = nil;

NSDictionary *res = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:GETReply options:NSJSONReadingMutableLeaves|| NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&myError];

Nslog(@"%@",res);

this code can useful for getting jsondata.

Answer 2

You can pass array or dictionary. Here, I am taking NSMutableDictionary.

NSMutableDictionary *contentDictionary = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc]init];
[contentDictionary setValue:@"a" forKey:@"b"];
[contentDictionary setValue:@"c" forKey:@"d"];

To generate a JSON string from a NSDictionary or NSArray, You don't need to import any third party framework. Just use following code:-

NSError *error; 
NSData *jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:contentDictionary // Here you can pass array or dictionary
                    options:NSJSONWritingPrettyPrinted // Pass 0 if you don't care about the readability of the generated string
                    error:&error];
NSString *jsonString;
if (jsonData) {
    jsonString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:jsonData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
    //This is your JSON String
    //NSUTF8StringEncoding encodes special characters using an escaping scheme
} else {
    NSLog(@"Got an error: %@", error);
    jsonString = @"";
}
NSLog(@"Your JSON String is %@", jsonString);

Answer 3

As of ISO7 at least you can easily do this with NSJSONSerialization.

Answer 4

NOTE: This answer was given before iOS 5 was released.

Get the json-framework and do this:

#import "SBJsonWriter.h"

...

SBJsonWriter *jsonWriter = [[SBJsonWriter alloc] init];

NSString *jsonString = [jsonWriter stringWithObject:myDictionary];  

[jsonWriter release];

myDictionary will be your dictionary.

Answer 5

Here is the Swift 4 version

extension NSDictionary{

func toString() throws -> String? {
    do {
        let data = try JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: self, options: .prettyPrinted)
        return String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)
    }
    catch (let error){
        throw error
    }
}

}

Usage Example

do{
    let jsonString = try dic.toString()
    }
    catch( let error){
        print(error.localizedDescription)
    }

Or if you are sure it is valid dictionary then you can use

let jsonString = try? dic.toString()

Answer 6

Here are categories for NSArray and NSDictionary to make this super-easy. I've added an option for pretty-print (newlines and tabs to make easier to read).

@interface NSDictionary (BVJSONString)
-(NSString*) bv_jsonStringWithPrettyPrint:(BOOL) prettyPrint;
@end

.

@implementation NSDictionary (BVJSONString)

  -(NSString*) bv_jsonStringWithPrettyPrint:(BOOL) prettyPrint {
     NSError *error;
     NSData *jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:self
                                                   options:(NSJSONWritingOptions)    (prettyPrint ? NSJSONWritingPrettyPrinted : 0)
                                                     error:&error];

     if (! jsonData) {
        NSLog(@"%s: error: %@", __func__, error.localizedDescription);
        return @"{}";
     } else {
        return [[NSString alloc] initWithData:jsonData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
     } 
 }
@end

.

@interface NSArray (BVJSONString)
- (NSString *)bv_jsonStringWithPrettyPrint:(BOOL)prettyPrint;
@end

.

@implementation NSArray (BVJSONString)
-(NSString*) bv_jsonStringWithPrettyPrint:(BOOL) prettyPrint {
    NSError *error;
    NSData *jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:self
                                                       options:(NSJSONWritingOptions) (prettyPrint ? NSJSONWritingPrettyPrinted : 0)
                                                         error:&error];

    if (! jsonData) {
        NSLog(@"%s: error: %@", __func__, error.localizedDescription);
        return @"[]";
    } else {
        return [[NSString alloc] initWithData:jsonData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
    }
}
@end