What's the best way to store and retrieve multi-dimensional NSMutableArrays?

Question

I\'m storing a bunch of data in a .plist file (in the application documents folder), and it\'s structured like this:

Dictionary {
    \"description\" = \"String          


        

Answer 1

Instead of writing all that custom class junk, you should use NSPropertyListSerialization. Specifically, see the propertyListWithData:options:format:error: method. Example usage:

NSMutableDictionary *d = [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:@"path/to/file"] 
                                                                   options:NSPropertyListMutableContainers
                                                                    format:NULL
                                                                     error:NULL];

This will make all the containers mutable, but keep the leaf nodes (e.g. NSStrings) immutable. There's also an option to make the leaves mutable too.