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

Apple added a JSON parser and serializer in iOS 5.0 and Mac OS X 10.7. See NSJSONSerialization.

To generate a JSON string from a NSDictionary or NSArray, you do not need to import any third party framework anymore.

Here is how to do it:

NSError *error; 
NSData *jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:dictionaryOrArrayToOutput 
                                                   options:NSJSONWritingPrettyPrinted // Pass 0 if you don't care about the readability of the generated string
                                                     error:&error];

if (! jsonData) {
    NSLog(@"Got an error: %@", error);
} else {
    NSString *jsonString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:jsonData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
}

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

To convert a NSDictionary to a NSString:

NSError * err;
NSData * jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:myDictionary options:0 error:&err]; 
NSString * myString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:jsonData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];