how to print value of object in an array in swift, not its location

Question

I have a class that contains data on certain entrepreneurs in a separate swift file that is within the same project.

It looks like this:

class Entrepreneur:NSObject {

var name:String?
var netWorth = (0.0, "")
var company:String?
var summary: [String]
var age: Int?
override init() {
    name = ""
    company = ""
    summary = [""]
    age = 1;

}

In the same file I have a function that returns an NSMutableArray which contain the instances of the entrepreneur class like this:

func populateArray() -> NSMutableArray {

var entreprenuersArray: NSMutableArray = []

//Mark Zuckerberg
let markZuckerBerg = Entrepreneur()
markZuckerBerg.name = "Mark Zuckerberg"
markZuckerBerg.age = 19
markZuckerBerg.company = "Facebook"
markZuckerBerg.netWorth = (35.7, "Billion")

// add mark zuckerberg object to array
entreprenuersArray.addObject(markZuckerBerg)
print (entreprenuersArray)

in my ViewController.swift file I create a constant called entrepreneurss and give it a type of the class "Entrepreneur" created above and initialize it like so:

let entrepreneuerss:Entrepreneur = Entrepreneur()

I then access one the class methods, the "populateArray" function and try to print the entrepreneurss array like so:

   entrepreneuerss.populateArray()
    print (entrepreneuerss)

The issue is the print function is printing the location of the object and not the value...something like this: .Entrepreneur: 0x7f88d0e3ecc0>"

What do I need to do so that I can return an array of the object values and not the location. I want to be able to access the array of object from my ViewController.swift file and randomly select an object and access its properties.

Answer 1

First, you have a instance method which returns an array of Entrepreneur objects (by the way, I don't see a return, maybe you forgot to copy it).

This method should be a class method, because you don't use any property of the Entrepreneur object which returns it :

class func populateArray() -> [Entrepreneur] {

    var entreprenuersArray:[Entrepreneur] = []

    //Mark Zuckerberg
    let markZuckerBerg = Entrepreneur()
    markZuckerBerg.name = "Mark Zuckerberg"
    markZuckerBerg.age = 19
    markZuckerBerg.company = "Facebook"
    markZuckerBerg.netWorth = (35.7, "Billion")

    // add mark zuckerberg object to array
    entreprenuersArray.append(markZuckerBerg)
    print (entreprenuersArray)

    return entreprenuersArray
}

Then you can have your array by calling :

let array = Entrepreneur.populateArray()

---

Secondly, in this method, you create an array of Entrepreneur object and returns it, but in your example code, you never use this array :

// Creates a Entrepreneur object with default values
let entrepreneuerss:Entrepreneur = Entrepreneur()

// create an array of entrepreneurs objects, returns it, but never use it
entrepreneuerss.populateArray()

// print some information about the object with default values
print (entrepreneurs)

Instead, you should use the class method and try:

// create an array of entrepreneurs objects, returns it, 
let arrayEntrepreneurs = Entrepreneur.populateArray()

// print some information about the array of Entrepreneurs objects
print (arrayEntrepreneurs)

---

In order to have a detailed description of your object, since it inherits from NSObject, just override the description read-only property in order to customize the text when you log your object :

override var description : String {
    get {
        return "Entrepreneur : name : `\(name) - company : `\(company)` - summary : `\(summary)` - age : `\(age)`"
    }
}

Thus your print function will return :

[Entrepreneur : name : `Optional("Mark Zuckerberg") - company : `Optional("Facebook")` - summary : `[""]` - age : `Optional(19)`]

Answer 2

Maybe I am missing something here, but you can just use...

dump(arrayEntrepreneurs)

for Cocco

Swift.dump(arrayEntrepreneurs)