iOS app that checks for duplicate profiles

Question

I want to create an iOS app which should load profiles from an XML file on the web, check for duplicates and eliminate them. I use NSXMLParser to parse the profiles from the XML file but now I am confused about how to check for duplicates. The eliminated profiles should be shown in a UITableView.

Any idea or help would be appreciated!

<profiles>

    <profile>
    <firstname>Amin</firstname>
    <lastname>Ziarkash</lastname>
    <address>Melisstokelaan</address> 
    <zipcode>2541GH</zipcode> 
    <city>DenHaag</city>
    <email>a.ziarkash@hotmail.com</email>
    </profile>

    <profile>
    <firstname>Niko</firstname>
    <lastname>DeVries</lastname>
    <address>Sterrelaan</address> 
    <zipcode>3342JH</zipcode> 
    <city>Amsterdam</city>
    <email>niko@hotmail.com</email>
    </profile>

    <profile>
    <firstname>Marcel</firstname>
    <lastname>Janssens</lastname>
    <address>Voorhoeveweg</address> 
    <zipcode>6006SV</zipcode> 
    <city>Weert</city>
    <email>marcel.j@hotmail.com</email>
    </profile>

    <profile>
    <firstname>Amin</firstname>
    <lastname>Ziarkash</lastname>
    <address>Melisstokelaan</address> 
    <zipcode>2541GH</zipcode> 
    <city>DenHaag</city>
    <email>a.ziarkash@hotmail.com</email>
    </profile>

</profiles>

Answer 1

Try like this for parsing your XML, once you parsed then filter it accordingly:-

-(IBAction)test:(id)sender
{
    self.mutableArr=[[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
    NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc]initWithString:@"file:///Users/XYZ/Desktop/test.xml"];//this is your xml file url
    NSXMLParser *parser = [[NSXMLParser alloc]initWithContentsOfURL:url];
    [parser setDelegate:self];
    BOOL par=[parser parse];
    NSLog(@"par=%d",par);
}


- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didStartElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qualifiedName attributes:(NSDictionary *)attributeDict
{

          if ([elementName isEqualToString:@"firstname"])
          {
              self.elementNm=elementName;
          }
         if ([elementName isEqualToString:@"lastname"])
         {
             self.elementNm=elementName;
         }
    if ([elementName isEqualToString:@"address"])
    {
        self.elementNm=elementName;
    }
    if ([elementName isEqualToString:@"zipcode"])
    {
        self.elementNm=elementName;
    }
    if ([elementName isEqualToString:@"city"])
    {
        self.elementNm=elementName;
    }
    if ([elementName isEqualToString:@"email"])
    {
        self.elementNm=elementName;
    }
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didEndElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName
          {
              if ([elementName isEqualToString:@"profiles"])
              {
                  NSLog(@"rootelement end");
              }
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser foundCharacters:(NSString *)string
{
    if ([string rangeOfString:@"\n"].location== NSNotFound)
    {
    if (string.length > 0)
    {
       self.mutableDict=[[NSMutableDictionary alloc]init];
        [self.mutableDict setObject:string forKey:self.elementNm];
        [self.mutableArr addObject:self.mutableDict];

    }
    }
}

//Now filtered you array after parsing xml
-(IBAction)filterArray:(id)sender
{
    for (NSMutableDictionary *dict in self.mutableArr)
    {
        if ([dict objectForKey:@"zipcode"])
        {
        NSPredicate *pd=[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"(zipcode == %@)", [dict objectForKey:@"zipcode"]];
         [self.mutableArr filterUsingPredicate:pd];
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

you can use this nice class extension https://github.com/nicklockwood/XMLDictionary

NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithXMLData:data];

You can then map those dictionaries into your own custom class