JSONKit: how to keep order of JSON dictionary keys

Question

I've some JSON String that represents a Map (Dictionary) from the server.

I need to draw this map as it is @ my iPhone app.

I am using JSONKit and it seems that it uses Hashing function to insert keys into its internal JKDictionary....

So should I send a priority number to order the keys? Or there is some way to make JSONKit to preserve keys ordering of the server JSON data?

Answer 1

You can choose to add a order property to your dictionary. And sort your keys using that property. Then you can enumerate your dictionary using your sorted keys. enumerateKeysAndObjectsUsingBlock:

// Here I suppose you have added another number property `order` for your dictionary's values
NSArray *sortedKeys = [dic keysSortedByValueUsingComparator:^(id obj1, id obj2){
    return [obj1 order] < [obj2 order];
}];

// for in will give your an ordered travel for your sortedKeys
for (id key in sortedKeys) {
    // handle your dic
    [dic objectForKey:key];
}

Answer 2

Dictionaries are not ordered, but arrays are, so if you can change your JSON data structure to an array, you should get an ordered result.

[{'key1':'value1'},{'key2':'value2'},{'key3':'value3'}]

What does your data look like?