How do I get a plist as a Dictionary in Swift

Question

I am playing around with Apple s new Swift programming language and have some problems     Currently I m trying to read a plist file  in Objective-C I would do the following to get the content as a NSDictionary   NSString  filePath     NSBundle mainBundle  pathForResource   Config  ofType   plist    NSDictionary  dict     NSDictionary alloc  initWithContentsOfFile filePath     How do I get a plist as a Dictionary in Swift   I assume I can get the path to the plist with   let path   NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  Config   ofType   plist     When this works  If it s correct    How do I get the content as a Dictionary   Also a more general question   Is it OK to use the default NS  classes  I think so   or am I missing something  As far as I know the default framework NS  classes are still valid and alright to use

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Step 1   Simple and fastest way to parse plist in swift 3   extension Bundle        func parsePlist ofName name  String  - gt   String  AnyObject                 check if plist data available         guard let plistURL   Bundle main url forResource  name  withExtension   plist                let data   try  Data contentsOf  plistURL              else                   return nil                       parse plist into  String  Anyobject          guard let plistDictionary   try  PropertyListSerialization propertyList from  data  options      format  nil  as   String  AnyObject  else               return nil                    return plistDictionary           Step 2  How to use   Bundle   parsePlist ofName   Your-Plist-Name

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Here s the solution I found   let levelBlocks   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  LevelBlocks   ofType   plist    let test  AnyObject   levelBlocks objectForKey  Level1   println test     Prints the value of test   I set the type of test to AnyObject to silence a warning about an unexpected inference that could occur   Also  it has to be done in a class method   To access and save a specific value of a known type   let value   levelBlocks objectForKey  Level1   objectForKey  amount   as Int println toString value      Converts value to String and prints it

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Since this answer isn t here yet  just wanted to point out you can also use the infoDictionary property to get the info plist as a dictionary  Bundle main infoDictionary   Although something like Bundle main object forInfoDictionaryKey  kCFBundleNameKey as String  may be faster if you re only interested in a specific item in the info plist      Swift 4     Getting info plist as a dictionary let dictionary   Bundle main infoDictionary     Getting the app display name from the info plist Bundle main infoDictionary  kCFBundleNameKey as String      Getting the app display name from the info plist  another way  Bundle main object forInfoDictionaryKey  kCFBundleNameKey as String

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in my case I create a NSDictionary called appSettings and add all needed keys  For this case  the solution is   if let dict   NSBundle mainBundle   objectForInfoDictionaryKey  appSettings       if let configAppToken   dict  myKeyInsideAppSettings   as  String

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This is what I do if I want to convert a  plist to a Swift dictionary    if let path   NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  Config   ofType   plist       if let dict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path  as  Dictionary lt String  AnyObject gt           use swift dictionary as normal         Edited for Swift 2 0   if let path   NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  Config   ofType   plist    dict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path  as   String  AnyObject           use swift dictionary as normal     Edited for Swift 3 0   if let path   Bundle main path forResource   Config   ofType   plist    let dict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path  as   String  AnyObject               use swift dictionary as normal

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Plist is a simple Swift enum I made for working with property lists      load an applications info plist data  let info   Plist NSBundle mainBundle   infoDictionary  let identifier   info  CFBundleIndentifier   string    More examples   import Plist     initialize using an NSDictionary    and retrieve keyed values  let info   Plist dict  let name   info  name   string       let age   info  age   int    0      initialize using an NSArray    and retrieve indexed values  let info   Plist array  let itemAtIndex0   info 0  value      utility initiaizer to load a plist file at specified path let info   Plist path   path to plist file       we support index chaining - you can get to a dictionary from an array via    a dictionary and so on    don t worry  the following will not fail with errors in case    the index path is invalid if let complicatedAccessOfSomeStringValueOfInterest   info  dictKey   10   anotherKey   string        do something   else        data cannot be indexed       you can also re-use parts of a plist data structure  let info   Plist      let firstSection   info  Sections   0   SectionData   let sectionKey   firstSection  key   string  let sectionSecret   firstSection  secret   int    Plist swift  Plist itself is quite simple  here s its listing in case you to refer directly          Plist swift      import Foundation   public enum Plist        case dictionary NSDictionary      case Array NSArray      case Value Any      case none      public init   dict  NSDictionary            self    dictionary dict             public init   array  NSArray            self    Array array             public init   value  Any             self   Plist wrap value                MARK - initialize from a path  extension Plist        public init path  String            if let dict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path                self    dictionary dict                    else if let array   NSArray contentsOfFile  path                self    Array array                    else               self    none                         MARK - private helpers  extension Plist            wraps a given object to a Plist     fileprivate static func wrap   object  Any   - gt  Plist            if let dict   object as  NSDictionary               return  dictionary dict                    if let array   object as  NSArray               return  Array array                    if let value   object               return  Value value                    return  none                tries to cast to an optional T     fileprivate func cast lt T gt    - gt  T            switch self           case let  Value value               return value as  T         default              return nil                       MARK - subscripting  extension Plist            index a dictionary     public subscript key  String  - gt  Plist           switch self            case let  dictionary dict               let v   dict object forKey  key              return Plist wrap v           default              return  none                          index an array     public subscript index  Int  - gt  Plist           switch self           case let  Array array               if index  gt   0  amp  amp  index  lt  array count                   return Plist wrap array index                             return  none          default              return  none                         MARK - Value extraction  extension Plist        public var string  String          return cast         public var int  Int                return cast         public var double  Double          return cast         public var float  Float            return cast         public var date  Date            return cast         public var data  Data            return cast         public var number  NSNumber        return cast         public var bool  Bool              return cast              unwraps and returns the underlying value     public var value  Any            switch self           case let  Value value               return value         case let  dictionary dict               return dict         case let  Array array               return array         case  none              return nil                         returns the underlying array     public var array  NSArray            switch self           case let  Array array               return array         default              return nil                         returns the underlying dictionary     public var dict  NSDictionary            switch self           case let  dictionary dict               return dict         default              return nil                         MARK - CustomStringConvertible  extension Plist   CustomStringConvertible       public var description String           switch self           case let  Array array   return   array   array            case let  dictionary dict   return   dict   dict            case let  Value value   return   value   value            case  none  return   none

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I ve created a simple Dictionary initializer that replaces NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path   Just remove the NS   extension Dictionary where Key    String  Value    Any        public init  contentsOfFile path  String            let url   URL fileURLWithPath  path           self init contentsOfURL  url             public init  contentsOfURL url  URL            guard let data   try  Data contentsOf  url               let dictionary    try  PropertyListSerialization propertyList from  data  options      format  nil  as   String  Any      nil             else   return nil            self   dictionary            You can use it like so   let filePath   Bundle main path forResource   Preferences   ofType   plist    let preferences   Dictionary contentsOfFile  filePath   UserDefaults standard register defaults  preferences

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You can read plist in SWIFT Language in this way   let path   NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  PriceList   ofType   plist   let dict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path    Read Single Dictionary value   let test  AnyObject   dict objectForKey  index1     If you want to get full multi-dimensional dictionary in plist   let value  AnyObject   dict objectForKey  index2   objectForKey  date     Here is the plist    lt plist version  1 0  gt   lt dict gt   lt key gt index2 lt  key gt   lt dict gt       lt key gt date lt  key gt       lt string gt 20140610 lt  string gt       lt key gt amount lt  key gt       lt string gt 110 lt  string gt   lt  dict gt   lt key gt index1 lt  key gt   lt dict gt       lt key gt amount lt  key gt       lt string gt 125 lt  string gt       lt key gt date lt  key gt       lt string gt 20140212 lt  string gt   lt  dict gt   lt  dict gt   lt  plist gt

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can actually do it in 1 line       var dict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  Config   ofType   plist

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Simple struct to access plist file  Swift 2 0   struct Configuration           static let path   NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  Info   ofType   plist      static let dict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path  as   String  AnyObject     static let someValue   dict  someKey   as  String     Usage    print  someValue     Configuration someValue

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Swift 3 0  if you want to read a  2-dimensional Array  from  plist  you can try it like this   if let path   Bundle main path forResource   Info   ofType   plist         if let dimension1   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path            if let dimension2   dimension1  key   as   String                destination array   dimension2

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Swift 4 0  You can now use the Decodable protocol to Decode a  plist into a custom struct  I will go over a basic example  for more complicated  plist structures I recommend reading up on Decodable Encodable  a good resource is here  https   benscheirman com 2017 06 swift-json     First setup your struct into the format of your  plist file  For this example I will consider a  plist with a root level Dictionary and 3 entries  1 String with key  name   1 Int with key  age   and 1 Boolean with key  single   Here is the struct   struct Config  Decodable       private enum CodingKeys  String  CodingKey           case name  age  single            let name  String     let age  Int     let single  Bool     Simple enough  Now the cool part  Using the PropertyListDecoder class we can easily parse the  plist file into an instantiation of this struct   func parseConfig   - gt  Config       let url   Bundle main url forResource   Config   withExtension   plist        let data   try  Data contentsOf  url      let decoder   PropertyListDecoder       return try  decoder decode Config self  from  data      Not much more code to worry about  and its all in Swift  Better yet we now have an instantiation of the Config struct that we can easily use    let config   parseConfig   print config name   print config age  print config single     This Prints the value for the  name    age   and  single  keys in the  plist

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It is best to use native dictionaries and arrays because they have been optimized for use with swift  That being said you can use NS    classes in swift and I think this situation warrants that  Here is how you would implement it   var path   NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  Config   ofType   plist   var dict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path    So far  in my opinion  this is the easiest and most efficient way to access a plist  but in the future I expect that apple will add more functionality  such as using plist  into native dictionaries

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Converted into a convenience extension via Nick s answer   extension Dictionary       static func contentsOf path  URL  - gt  Dictionary lt String  AnyObject gt            let data   try  Data contentsOf  path          let plist   try  PropertyListSerialization propertyList from  data  options   mutableContainers  format  nil           return plist as   String  AnyObject            usage   let path   Bundle main path forResource   plistName   ofType   plist    let url   URL fileURLWithPath  path  let dict   Dictionary lt String  AnyObject gt  contentsOf path  url    I d be willing to bet that it would also work to create a similar extension for Arrays

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This answer uses Swift native objects rather than NSDictionary    Swift 3 0    get the path of the plist file guard let plistPath   Bundle main path forResource   level1   ofType   plist   else   return     load the plist as data in memory guard let plistData   FileManager default contents atPath  plistPath  else   return     use the format of a property list  xml  var format   PropertyListSerialization PropertyListFormat xml   convert the plist data to a Swift Dictionary guard let  plistDict   try  PropertyListSerialization propertyList from  plistData  options   mutableContainersAndLeaves  format   amp format  as   String   AnyObject  else   return     access the values in the dictionary  if let value   plistDict  aKey   as  String       do something with your value   print value      you can also use the coalesce operator to handle possible nil values var myValue   plistDict  aKey

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I use swift dictionaries but convert them to and from NSDictionaries in my file manager class like so       func writePlist fileName String  myDict Dictionary lt String  AnyObject gt            let docsDir String   dirPaths 0  as String         let docPath   docsDir         fileName         let thisDict   myDict as NSDictionary         if thisDict writeToFile docPath  atomically  true                NSLog  success             else               NSLog  failure                        func getPlist fileName String - gt Dictionary lt String  AnyObject gt           let docsDir String   dirPaths 0  as String         let docPath   docsDir         fileName         let thisDict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  docPath          return thisDict  as  Dictionary lt String  AnyObject gt          This seems the least troubling way to read and write but let s the rest of my code stay as swift as possible

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I have been working with Swift 3 0 and wanted to contribute an answer for the updated syntax  Additionally  and possibly more importantly  I am using the PropertyListSerialization object to do the heavy lifting  which is a lot more flexible than just using the NSDictionary as it allows for an Array as the root type of the plist   Below is a screenshot of the plist I am using  It is a little complicated  so as to show the power available  but this will work for any allowable combination of plist types    As you can see I am using an Array of String String dictionaries to store a list of website names and their corresponding URL   I am using the PropertyListSerialization object  as mentioned above  to do the heavy lifting for me  Additionally  Swift 3 0 has become more  Swifty  so all of the object names have lost the  NS  prefix   let path   Bundle main   pathForResource  DefaultSiteList   ofType   plist    let url   URL fileURLWithPath  path  let data   try  Data contentsOf  url  let plist   try  PropertyListSerialization propertyList from  data  options   mutableContainers  format  nil    After the above code runs plist will be of type Array lt AnyObject gt   but we know what type it really is so we can cast it to the correct type   let dictArray   plist as    String String        String String   is equivalent to Array lt  Dictionary lt String  String gt   gt    And now we can access the various properties of our Array of String String Dictionaries in a natural way  Hopefully to convert them into actual strongly typed structs or classes     print dictArray 0   Name

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Swift 5 If you want to fetch specific value for some key then we can use below extension which uses infoDictionary property on Bundle  Bundle main infoDictionary can be used to get all info plist values in the form dictionary and so we can directly query using object forInfoDictionaryKey  key  method on Bundle extension Bundle       static func infoPlistValue forKey key  String  - gt  Any            guard let value   Bundle main object forInfoDictionaryKey  key  else              return nil                   return value          Usage guard let apiURL   Bundle infoPlistValue forKey   quot API URL KEY quot   as  String else   return

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You can still use NSDictionaries in Swift   For Swift 4   var nsDictionary  NSDictionary   if let path   Bundle main path forResource   Config   ofType   plist         nsDictionary   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path       For Swift 3   if let path   Bundle main path forResource   Config   ofType   plist       let myDict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path          Use your myDict here     And older versions of Swift  var myDict  NSDictionary  if let path   NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  Config   ofType   plist         myDict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path    if let dict   myDict          Use your dict here     The NSClasses are still available and perfectly fine to use in Swift  I think they ll probably want to shift focus to swift soon  but currently the swift APIs don t have all the functionality of the core NSClasses

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Swift - Read Write plist and text file      override func viewDidLoad         super viewDidLoad        let fileManager    NSFileManager  defaultManager        let directorys    String     NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains NSSearchPathDirectory DocumentDirectory NSSearchPathDomainMask AllDomainsMask  true  as   String       if  directorys    nil           let directories  String    directorys           let dictionary   directories 0     documents directory               Create and insert the data into the Plist file               let plistfile    myPlist plist          var myDictionary  NSMutableDictionary     Content    This is a sample Plist file                     let plistpath   dictionary stringByAppendingPathComponent plistfile            if  fileManager  fileExistsAtPath plistpath    writing Plist file             myDictionary writeToFile plistpath  atomically  false                    else               Reading Plist file             println  Plist file found                let resultDictionary   NSMutableDictionary contentsOfFile  plistpath              println resultDictionary  description                          Create and insert the data into the Text file               let textfile    myText txt          let sampleText    This is a sample text file                      let textpath   dictionary stringByAppendingPathComponent textfile           if  fileManager  fileExistsAtPath textpath    writing text file             sampleText writeToFile textpath  atomically  false  encoding  NSUTF8StringEncoding  error  nil             else                Reading text file             let reulttext    String contentsOfFile  textpath  encoding  NSUTF8StringEncoding  error  nil              println reulttext                      else           println  directory is empty

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In swift 3 0 Reading from Plist   func readPropertyList             var propertyListFormat    PropertyListSerialization PropertyListFormat xml   Format of the Property List          var plistData   String  AnyObject          Our data         let plistPath  String    Bundle main path forResource   data   ofType   plist      the path of the data         let plistXML   FileManager default contents atPath  plistPath            do    convert the data to a dictionary and handle errors              plistData   try PropertyListSerialization propertyList from  plistXML  options   mutableContainersAndLeaves  format   amp propertyListFormat  as   String AnyObject             catch               print  Error reading plist    error   format    propertyListFormat                      Read More HOW TO USE PROPERTY LISTS   PLIST  IN SWIFT

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You can use that  I create a simple extension for Dictionary in github https   github com DaRkD0G LoadExtension  extension Dictionary                   Load a Plist file from the app bundle into a new dictionary           param  File name          return  Dictionary lt String  AnyObject gt              static func loadPlistFromProject filename  String  - gt  Dictionary lt String  AnyObject gt              if let path   NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  GameParam   ofType   plist                 return NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path  as  Dictionary lt String  AnyObject gt                    println  Could not find file    filename            return nil           And you can use that for load        Example function for load Files Plist     param  Name File Plist    func loadPlist filename  String  - gt  ExampleClass        if let dictionary   Dictionary lt String  AnyObject gt  loadPlistFromProject filename            let stringValue    dictionary  name   as NSString          let intergerValue    dictionary  score   as NSString  integerValue         let doubleValue    dictionary  transition   as NSString  doubleValue          return ExampleClass stringValue  stringValue  intergerValue  intergerValue  doubleValue  doubleValue            return nil

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Swift 4 0 iOS 11 2 6 list parsed and code to parse it  based on https   stackoverflow com users 3647770 ashok-r answer above    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  UTF-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC  -  Apple  DTD PLIST 1 0  EN   http   www apple com DTDs PropertyList-1 0 dtd  gt   lt plist version  1 0  gt   lt array gt     lt dict gt       lt key gt identity lt  key gt       lt string gt blah-1 lt  string gt       lt key gt major lt  key gt       lt string gt 1 lt  string gt       lt key gt minor lt  key gt       lt string gt 1 lt  string gt       lt key gt uuid lt  key gt       lt string gt f45321 lt  string gt       lt key gt web lt  key gt       lt string gt http   web lt  string gt   lt  dict gt   lt dict gt       lt key gt identity lt  key gt       lt string gt  lt  string gt       lt key gt major lt  key gt       lt string gt  lt  string gt       lt key gt minor lt  key gt       lt string gt  lt  string gt       lt key gt uuid lt  key gt       lt string gt  lt  string gt       lt key gt web lt  key gt       lt string gt  lt  string gt     lt  dict gt   lt  array gt   lt  plist gt   do      let plistXML   try Data contentsOf  url      var plistData    String  AnyObject               var propertyListFormat    PropertyListSerialization PropertyListFormat xml         do               plistData   try PropertyListSerialization propertyList from  plistXML  options   mutableContainersAndLeaves  format   amp propertyListFormat  as    String AnyObject              catch               print  Error reading plist    error   format    propertyListFormat                    catch           print  error no upload

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Swift 3 0  if let path   Bundle main path forResource   config   ofType   plist         let dict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path          use dictionary     The easiest way to do this in my opinion

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Here is a bit shorter version  based on  connor  s answer  guard let path   Bundle main path forResource   GoogleService-Info   ofType   plist        let myDict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path  else       return nil    let value   dict value forKey   CLIENT ID   as  String

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Swift 2 0    Accessing Info Plist  I have a Dictionary named CoachMarksDictionary  with a boolean value in Info Plist   I want to access the bool value and make it true   let path   NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  Info   ofType   plist      let dict   NSDictionary contentsOfFile  path  as   String  AnyObject     if let CoachMarksDict   dict  CoachMarksDictionary            print  Info plist     CoachMarksDict        var dashC   CoachMarksDict  DashBoardCompleted   as  Bool     print  DashBoardCompleted state    dashC           Writing To Plist   From a Custom Plist -   Make from File-New-File-Resource-PropertyList  Added three strings named   DashBoard New  DashBoard Draft  DashBoard Completed   func writeToCoachMarksPlist status String  keyName String        let path1   NSBundle mainBundle   pathForResource  CoachMarks   ofType   plist     let coachMarksDICT   NSMutableDictionary contentsOfFile  path1    as NSMutableDictionary   var coachMarksMine   coachMarksDICT objectForKey keyName      coachMarksMine    status   coachMarksDICT setValue status  forKey  keyName     coachMarksDICT writeToFile path1   atomically  true       The method can be called as   self writeToCoachMarksPlist   true - means user has checked the marks  keyName   the key in the CoachMarks dictionary

[ios] How do I get a plist as a Dictionary in Swift?

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