How can I convert NSDictionary to NSData and vice versa?

Question

NSDictionary -> NSData:

NSData *myData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:myDictionary];

NSData -> NSDictionary:

NSDictionary *myDictionary = (NSDictionary*) [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:myData];

NSDictionary -> NSData:

NSMutableData *data = [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
NSKeyedArchiver *archiver = [[NSKeyedArchiver alloc] initForWritingWithMutableData:data];
[archiver encodeObject:yourDictionary forKey:@"Some Key Value"];
[archiver finishEncoding];
[archiver release];

// Here, data holds the serialized version of your dictionary
// do what you need to do with it before you:
[data release];

NSData -> NSDictionary

NSData *data = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:[self dataFilePath]];
NSKeyedUnarchiver *unarchiver = [[NSKeyedUnarchiver alloc] initForReadingWithData:data];
NSDictionary *myDictionary = [[unarchiver decodeObjectForKey:@"Some Key Value"] retain];
[unarchiver finishDecoding];
[unarchiver release];
[data release];

You can do that with any class that conforms to NSCoding.

source

Use NSJSONSerialization:

NSDictionary *dict;
NSData *dataFromDict = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:dict
                                                       options:NSJSONWritingPrettyPrinted
                                                         error:&error];

NSDictionary *dictFromData = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:dataFromDict
                                                             options:NSJSONReadingAllowFragments
                                                               error:&error];

The latest returns id, so its a good idea to check the returned object type after you cast (here i casted to NSDictionary).

In Swift 2 you can do it in this way:

var dictionary: NSDictionary = ...

/* NSDictionary to NSData */
let data = NSKeyedArchiver.archivedDataWithRootObject(dictionary)

/* NSData to NSDictionary */
let unarchivedDictionary = NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObjectWithData(data!) as! NSDictionary

In Swift 3:

/* NSDictionary to NSData */
let data = NSKeyedArchiver.archivedData(withRootObject: dictionary)

/* NSData to NSDictionary */
let unarchivedDictionary = NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObject(with: data)