I was wondering what it is the right way of creating a NSSet of NSDictionary. I want to represent a graph with labeled connection using a dictionary referencing other dictionary (a dictionary can be tought as a state). To build that representation efficiently I would like to use a set of states. Then during the building phase if the state I want to add is already in the set use the reference to the original one. The idea is to use a NSDictionary to represent a state and a temporary NSMutableDictionary (reused during the building phase) to represent the state I am actually working on. Then I would like to use NSSet member: method to check if there is a state with the same labeled connections and in that case use that; if it is not present create an immutable copy of the working dictionary and put that in the set. Any ideas?
If that makes sense to you, go for it (didn’t really make much sense to me). You can put dictionaries into sets.
I am try to make myself clear. Immagine I have a graph like this:
A–a–>B–b–>C --c–>D
I represent that with a set of 4 dictionaries: one for each state (the uppercase letters), in the dictionaries I put the connections between states.
*A = { a->(A
Now going on in the graph building I come along to a new state that can share the subtree starting from B. i.e.
A–a–>B–b–>C --c–>D E–d–>F–b–>G --c–>H
*E = { a->(E
At this point I would like to check the set and if I could have it tested with isEqualToDictionary: instead of isEqual: I coud discover that C == D == G == H and use only C and that at that point B == F and use only B to obtain something like:
A–a–>B–b–>C E–d–/ --c–/
What I was thinking is that NSSet member: could return the set object instead of the one passed as argument and that it test for equality using isEqualToDictionary: or something like that.
I don’t know, but this seems like it could be a case for objects or CoreData entities: A State that has a set of child States (as well as any other information, like a label). After all, a directed graph is basically a tree without an explicit root. –JediKnil
Trees are acyclic by definition. Directed graphs can still have cycles.
I think that can be done with a CFSet with an appropriate CFSetEqualCallBack. Anyone knows if the equal comparison of NSSet can be customized?
Read the documentation. NSSet compares objects by sending them an -isEqual: message.