Parsing JSON to a predefined class in Objective C

Question

I have a json string like:

{
  \"a\":\"val1\",
  \"b\":\"val2\",
  \"c\":\"val3\"
}

And I have an objective C header file like:

Answer 1

Instead of using dictionaries directly you can always deserialize (parse) JSON to your class with using Key-value coding. Key-value coding is a great feature of Cocoa that lets you access properties and instance variables of class at runtime by name. As I can see your JSON model is not complex and you can apply this easily.

person.h

#import 

@interface Person : NSObject

@property NSString *personName;
@property NSString *personMiddleName;
@property NSString *personLastname;

- (instancetype)initWithJSONString:(NSString *)JSONString;

@end

person.m

#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (instancetype)init
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {

    }
    return self;
}

- (instancetype)initWithJSONString:(NSString *)JSONString
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {

        NSError *error = nil;
        NSData *JSONData = [JSONString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
        NSDictionary *JSONDictionary = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:JSONData options:0 error:&error];

        if (!error && JSONDictionary) {

            //Loop method
            for (NSString* key in JSONDictionary) {
                [self setValue:[JSONDictionary valueForKey:key] forKey:key];
            }
            // Instead of Loop method you can also use:
            // thanks @sapi for good catch and warning.
            // [self setValuesForKeysWithDictionary:JSONDictionary];
        }
    }
    return self;
}

@end

appDelegate.m

@implementation AppDelegate

    - (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification {

        // JSON String
        NSString *JSONStr = @"{ \"personName\":\"MyName\", \"personMiddleName\":\"MyMiddleName\", \"personLastname\":\"MyLastName\" }";

        // Init custom class 
        Person *person = [[Person alloc] initWithJSONString:JSONStr];

        // Here we can print out all of custom object properties. 
        NSLog(@"%@", person.personName); //Print MyName 
        NSLog(@"%@", person.personMiddleName); //Print MyMiddleName
        NSLog(@"%@", person.personLastname); //Print MyLastName    
    }

@end

The article using JSON to load Objective-C objects good point to start.