Obj-C easy method to convert from NSObject with properties to NSDictionary?

Question

I ran across something that I eventually figured out, but think that there's probably a much more efficient way to accomplish it.

I had an object (an NSObject which adopted the MKAnnotation protocol) that had a number of properties (title, subtitle,latitude,longitude, info, etc.). I needed to be able to pass this object to another object, which wanted to extract info from it using objectForKey methods, as an NSDictionary (because that's what it was getting from another view controller).

What I ended up doing was create a new NSMutableDictionary and use setObject: forKey on it to transfer each piece of vital info, and then I just passed on the newly created dictionary.

Was there an easier way to do this?

Here's the relevant code:

// sender contains a custom map annotation that has extra properties...

- (void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{    
    if ([[segue identifier] isEqualToString:@"showDetailFromMap"]) 
{
    DetailViewController *dest =[segue destinationViewController];

    //make a dictionary from annotaion to pass info
    NSMutableDictionary *myValues =[[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
    //fill with the relevant info
    [myValues setObject:[sender title] forKey:@"title"] ;
    [myValues setObject:[sender subtitle] forKey:@"subtitle"];
    [myValues setObject:[sender info] forKey:@"info"];
    [myValues setObject:[sender pic] forKey:@"pic"];
    [myValues setObject:[sender latitude] forKey:@"latitude"];
    [myValues setObject:[sender longitude] forKey:@"longitude"];
    //pass values
    dest.curLoc = myValues;
    }
}

Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom.

---

Here's what I came up with, thanks to the folks, below...

- (void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{    
if ([[segue identifier] isEqualToString:@"showDetailFromMap"]) 
{
    DetailViewController *dest =[segue destinationViewController];
    NSArray *myKeys = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
@"title",@"subtitle",@"info",@"pic",@"latitude",@"longitude", nil];

    //make a dictionary from annotaion to pass info
    NSDictionary *myValues =[sender dictionaryWithValuesForKeys:myKeys];

    //pass values
    dest.curLoc = myValues;
}

}

And a even simpler fix, as seen below...

Using valueForKey instead of object for key to retrieve the information.

---

Answer 1

Sure thing! Use the objc-runtime and KVC!

#import <objc/runtime.h>

@interface NSDictionary(dictionaryWithObject)

+(NSDictionary *) dictionaryWithPropertiesOfObject:(id) obj;

@end
@implementation NSDictionary(dictionaryWithObject)

+(NSDictionary *) dictionaryWithPropertiesOfObject:(id)obj
{
    NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];

    unsigned count;
    objc_property_t *properties = class_copyPropertyList([obj class], &count);

    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
        NSString *key = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:property_getName(properties[i])];
        [dict setObject:[obj valueForKey:key] forKey:key];
    }

    free(properties);

    return [NSDictionary dictionaryWithDictionary:dict];
}

@end

And you would use like this:

MyObj *obj = [MyObj new];    
NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithPropertiesOfObject:obj];
NSLog(@"%@", dict);

Answer 2

This is an old post and Richard J. Ross III's answer is really helpful, but in case of custom objects (an custom class has another custom object in it). However, sometimes properties are other objects and so forth, making the serialization a bit complicated.

Details * details = [[Details alloc] init];
details.tomato = @"Tomato 1";
details.potato = @"Potato 1";
details.mangoCount = [NSNumber numberWithInt:12];

Person * person = [[Person alloc]init];
person.name = @"HS";
person.age = @"126 Years";
person.gender = @"?";
person.details = details;

For converting these type of objects (multiple custom objects) into dictionary, I had to modify Richard J. Ross III's Answer a little bit.

+(NSDictionary *) dictionaryWithPropertiesOfObject:(id)obj
{
  NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];

  unsigned count;
  objc_property_t *properties = class_copyPropertyList([obj class], &count);

  for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
      NSString *key = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:property_getName(properties[i])];
      Class classObject = NSClassFromString([key capitalizedString]);
      if (classObject) {
        id subObj = [self dictionaryWithPropertiesOfObject:[obj valueForKey:key]];
        [dict setObject:subObj forKey:key];
      }
      else
      {
        id value = [obj valueForKey:key];
        if(value) [dict setObject:value forKey:key];
      }
   }

   free(properties);

   return [NSDictionary dictionaryWithDictionary:dict];
}

I hope it will help someone. Full credit goes to Richard J. Ross III.