How do I decipher Optional<Any> into an Array of Dictionaries? - arrays

Question

The following is an abridge list of JSON data:
let json = JSON(data: response.result.value!).dictionary
self?.processData(json: json!)
...
...
func processData(json:[String:Any]) {
let myList = json["list"]
...
}
---------------------------------------------------------------------
(lldb) po myList
▿ Optional<Any>
▿ some : [
{
"author" : "Jimmy Kickarse",
"word" : "Turkey",
"defid" : 1925960,
"current_vote" : "",
"thumbs_down" : 1103,
"thumbs_up" : 1987,
"permalink" : "http:\/\/turkey.urbanup.com\/1925960",
"example" : "If through some crazy events Asia and Europe went to war, they'd both bomb Turkey.",
"definition" : "A country that's incredibly fun to be in because it's not quite European, but not quite Asian either."
},
…
{
"author" : "DildoBob",
"word" : "Turkey",
"defid" : 7671084,
"current_vote" : "",
"thumbs_down" : 27,
"thumbs_up" : 112,
"permalink" : "http:\/\/turkey.urbanup.com\/7671084",
"example" : "Turkey cannot tweet, because Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Or if you are dyslexic, Pro Gay Centipede Ray) banned it's usage and access.",
"definition" : "A bird that can't tweet."
}
]
▿ rawArray : 10 elements
▿ 0 : 9 elements
▿ 0 : 2 elements
- .0 : author
- .1 : Jimmy Kickarse
▿ 1 : 2 elements
- .0 : word
- .1 : Turkey
▿ 2 : 2 elements
- .0 : defid
- .1 : 1925960
▿ 3 : 2 elements
- .0 : current_vote
- .1 :
▿ 4 : 2 elements
- .0 : thumbs_down
- .1 : 1103
▿ 5 : 2 elements
- .0 : thumbs_up
- .1 : 1987
▿ 6 : 2 elements
- .0 : permalink
- .1 : http://turkey.urbanup.com/1925960
▿ 7 : 2 elements
- .0 : example
- .1 : If through some crazy events Asia and Europe went to war, they'd both bomb Turkey.
▿ 8 : 2 elements
- .0 : definition
- .1 : A country that's incredibly fun to be in because it's not quite European, but not quite Asian either.
…
…
- rawDictionary : 0 elements
- rawString : ""
- rawBool : false
- _type : SwiftyJSON.Type.array
- _error : nil
How can I decipher this?
The list says it's a 'SwiftJSON.Type.array' (see above).
But the following says it's not:
(lldb) po type(of:myList)
Swift.Optional<Any>
It looks like an array of dictionaries.
So I attempted to cast it as such:
(lldb) po myList as [[String:String]]
error: Execution was interrupted, reason: signal SIGABRT.
The process has been returned to the state before expression evaluation.
How can get the elements of this object??
...or correctly convert this into an array of dictionaries of strings to decipher?
Follow up:
if let myList = json["list"] as? [[String:Any]] {
print("Do Something")
}
The 'if' statement failed.

Answer 1

Your myList is sure Array of Dictionary but you need to cast it to [[String:Any]] not [[String:String]] because its Dictionary contains number and string both as a value, So simply cast it to [[String:Any]] works for your.
if let myList = json["list"] as? [[String:Any]] {
//access your myList array here
}

Answer 2

Per a suggestion, I printed the data out:
func getData(str:String) {
Alamofire.request(MashapeRouter.getDefinition(str))
.responseData { response in
let json = JSON(data: response.result.value!).dictionary
print("\n-------------\n")
print(json!)
return;
}
}
I got the following:
-------------
["result_type": exact, "sounds": [
"http:\/\/media.urbandictionary.com\/sound\/turkey-7377.mp3",
"http:\/\/wav.urbandictionary.com\/turkey-21188.wav",
"http:\/\/wav.urbandictionary.com\/turkey-24905.wav",
"http:\/\/wav.urbandictionary.com\/turkey-40301.wav"
], "list": [
{
"example" : "If through some crazy events Asia and Europe went to war, they'd both bomb Turkey.",
"thumbs_down" : 1103,
"author" : "Jimmy Kickarse",
"defid" : 1925960,
"definition" : "A country that's incredibly fun to be in because it's not quite European, but not quite Asian either.",
"thumbs_up" : 1988,
"word" : "Turkey",
"permalink" : "http:\/\/turkey.urbanup.com\/1925960",
"current_vote" : ""
},
{
"example" : "That honkey is one straight-up jive turkey!",
"thumbs_down" : 686,
"author" : "Jam Master J",
"defid" : 1528701,
"definition" : "(n) a loser; an uncoordinated, inept, clumsy fool\r\nOR\r\na tool; a person who is not in with current culture and slang or is just generally uncool. \r\nThese slang usages of the word \"turkey\" were mostly used during the late 60's and 70's by urban-dwelling blacks.\r\nSee [jive turkey]",
"thumbs_up" : 1160,
"word" : "turkey",
"permalink" : "http:\/\/turkey.urbanup.com\/1528701",
"current_vote" : ""
},…
],
"tags": [
"thanksgiving",
"chicken",
"sex",
"turkish",
"turk",
"food",
"gobble",
"duck",
"ham",
"sandwich"
]]
Base on this output, I tried the following:
po json!["list"]?[0]["example"].string!
▿ Optional<String>
- some : "If through some crazy events Asia and Europe went to war, they\'d both bomb Turkey."
So I'm getting close:
if let myString = json!["list"]?[0]["example"].string {
print("myString= \(myString)")
}
...from which I got the following:
myString= If through some crazy events Asia and Europe went to war, they'd both bomb Turkey.
(lldb)
...so apparently all I need to do is to clean this all up; avoiding the 'pyramid of doom':- multiple optional unwrapping.