Parsing Arrays in JSON

[fnovello (Frank Novello)]

** update**

  let dict = pokemonDictionary![ability] as! NSArray
       
        let ability1 = dict[0]
        
        print(ability1)

prints the first element in array:

{
    ability =     {
        name = chlorophyll;
        url = "https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/ability/34/";
    };
    "is_hidden" = 1;
    slot = 3;
}

Now I am working on extracting the first name of the ability

I am having an issue trying to get to arrays that are nested inside a json array here is an example of what I mean. how do I get down to one ability and store that information in an array or dictionary?

Swift
pokemonDictionary!["abilities"] this returns the following Json code

Json

(
{
    ability =     {
        name = chlorophyll;
        url = "https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/ability/34/";
    };
    "is_hidden" = 1;
    slot = 3;
},
{
    ability =     {
        name = overgrow;
        url = "https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/ability/65/";
    };
    "is_hidden" = 0;
    slot = 1;
}
)
)

now how do I store the first ability in a dictionary or whatever type is appropriate?
I want to store that ability in a variable and then pull the ability out and store that into another variable

any help is much appreciated..I tried looking this up but I couldn't find anything

I have tried the following:

print(pokemonDictionary!["abilities"]![0])

this gives an error "Type 'Any' has no subscript members"

[anthonylatsis]

If you are storing JSON in [String : Any], you obviously can't do dict["ability"]["something else"] if an ability is another dictionary, since Any – the type under which you store the values of your dictionary – doesn't have subscripts.

You will have to force-cast first: (dict["ability"] as! [String: Any])["something else"].

Alternatively, you can use frameworks that are designed to work with JSON if you want your code to be more tidy, safe and readable. SwiftyJSON, for instance.

@fnovello

let dict = pokemonDictionary![ability] as! NSArray

let ability1 = dict[0]

print(ability1)

Now I am working on extracting the first name of the ability

let ability1 = dict[0] as! [String: AnyObject]

ability1["name"] // Is this what you want?

[fnovello (Frank Novello)]

UPDATE

This is the answer! Thank you so much for helping me!!!
print(ability1["ability"]!["name"])

I get nil :(

 func getAbilites()
        {
            let ability = "abilities"
            
            let dict = pokemonDictionary![ability] as! NSArray
            
            let ability1 = dict[0] as! [String: AnyObject]
            
            print(ability1)
            
            print(ability1["name"])

        }

Console output
["is_hidden": 1, "slot": 3, "ability": {
name = chlorophyll;
url = "https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/ability/34/";
}]
nil

[anthonylatsis]

OK, I see. First of all, why does your ability dictionary contain an ability? It is an ability itself, right? So it should be

[
“is_hidden”: 1,
“slot”: 3,
"name": chlorophyll,
"url" : “https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/ability/34/”,
]

// instead of

[“is_hidden”: 1, “slot”: 3, “ability”: {
name = chlorophyll;
url = “https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/ability/34/”;
}]

Now, because you have an ability inside the ability (...), you will have to go deeper:

func getAbilities(from dict: [String: Any]) {

     let abilities = dict["abilities"] as! NSArray

    let firstAbility = abilities[0] as [String: Any]
 
    let actualFirstAbility = firstAbility["ability"] as [String: Any]

    let name = actualFirstAbility["name"]  
}

[fnovello (Frank Novello)]

[anthonylatsis]

Well, looks like everything's fine. Is the issue resolved ?

[fnovello (Frank Novello)]

YUP thank you so much!

[anthonylatsis]

By the way, a question to the forum: when was this syntactic sugar introduced? A bit weird tbh.

class Foo {}

let foo: AnyObject = Foo()

let t = foo["something"]