CocoaDev

In an app I’m developing I want to be able to save color table specification (or color scheme) files into a designated directory, then let the user pick a file to use to create images (Mandelbrot and Julia set fractals)

The description of a color scheme contains integers, floats, RGB color structs, and an NSARRAY of color band objects.

I want to create a complex dictionary object that includes a couple of NSArrays. One of those arrays, in turn, will contain a dictionary object, that will contain OTHER structures.

I want to use the dictionaryWithObjects call to map my object’s data structures into a dictionary. I’m not sure how to specify the key values for the objects, however. Here’s a code snippet:

	NSDictionary* temp_dictonary  = [NSDictionary 
		dictionaryWithObjects: 
			[NSArray arrayWithObjects: 
					[NSNumber numberWithInt: gradient_type] 
					[NSNumber numberWithFloat: adjustment_value] 
					//more values here
					[NSArray arrayWithObjects: 
						[NSNumber numberWithFloat: start_color.red] 
						[NSNumber numberWithFloat: start_color.green] 
						[NSNumber numberWithFloat: start_color.blue], nil
					]
					[NSArray arrayWithObjects: 						
						[NSNumber numberWithFloat: start_color.red] 
						[NSNumber numberWithFloat: start_color.green] 
						[NSNumber numberWithFloat: start_color.blue], nil
					]
					[NSNumber numberWithnumberWithBool: use_wobble] 
					[NSArray arrayWithObjects: 						
						[NSNumber numberWithFloat: wobble_hue_change] 
						[NSNumber numberWithFloat: wobble_sat_change] 
						[NSNumber numberWithFloat: wobble_brightness_change], nil
					]
					[NSNumber numberWithfloat: wobble_adjustment], nil
			]
	forKeys:	[NSArray arrayWithObjects: 
		@"gradient_type", 
		@"adjustment_value,
		//>>>>How do I specify the keys for the array and it's objects?>>>
		nil]];

How do I create my array of key objects? Do I mimic the structure of the “array of arrays” that I use to specify my values? What’s the syntax?

The data structure above is a “color band” object. It is owned by a color scheme object. The color scheme object has a bunch of instance variables, and then an NSArray of color scheme objects. I’m assuming that once I can pack my color band objects into a dictionary, I can THEN create a color scheme dictionary, defined as its own complex array of values, including the NSArray of color band dictionaries.

Any help would be appreciated.

Duncan C

Why is this a dictionary? You might want to consider creating some classes instead. :P

I am getting read to write some configuration files to a plist (actually XML) file so the user can load and edit color scheme files outside of the program. After creating the dictionary, I write it to disk with NSDictionary writeToFile:atomically:

I figured out my question after much digging and testing. If you write a dictionary that contains an NSArray to a pList, the entries in the array are entered with indexes. In order to get an entry with a key that contains child values that also have keys, you have to create a dictionary inside another dictionary using nested calls to dictionaryWithObjects

Code formatting fixed. See TextFormattingRules.

Thanks for the formatting fix. I’m new to the this site, and didn’t know how to do this.