How can I convert NSDictionary to NSData and vice versa?

Use NSJSONSerialization:

NSDictionary *dict;
NSData *dataFromDict = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:dict
                                                       options:NSJSONWritingPrettyPrinted
                                                         error:&error];

NSDictionary *dictFromData = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:dataFromDict
                                                             options:NSJSONReadingAllowFragments
                                                               error:&error];

The latest returns id, so its a good idea to check the returned object type after you cast (here i casted to NSDictionary).


NSDictionary -> NSData:

NSData *myData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:myDictionary];

NSData -> NSDictionary:

NSDictionary *myDictionary = (NSDictionary*) [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:myData];

NSDictionary -> NSData:

NSMutableData *data = [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
NSKeyedArchiver *archiver = [[NSKeyedArchiver alloc] initForWritingWithMutableData:data];
[archiver encodeObject:yourDictionary forKey:@"Some Key Value"];
[archiver finishEncoding];
[archiver release];

// Here, data holds the serialized version of your dictionary
// do what you need to do with it before you:
[data release];

NSData -> NSDictionary

NSData *data = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:[self dataFilePath]];
NSKeyedUnarchiver *unarchiver = [[NSKeyedUnarchiver alloc] initForReadingWithData:data];
NSDictionary *myDictionary = [[unarchiver decodeObjectForKey:@"Some Key Value"] retain];
[unarchiver finishDecoding];
[unarchiver release];
[data release];

You can do that with any class that conforms to NSCoding.

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