Get country code from country name in IOS

Question

Im retrieving a country name from a server in english. For example, "Spain"

What I want to do is, assuming the country name is going to be written in english, get the country code.

What should I do? I´ve found getting the country name from the country code quite easy, but I´ve got no idea of how to do the opposite operation.

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Jef's answer helped here, with slight additions.

NSArray *countryCodes = [NSLocale ISOCountryCodes];
NSMutableArray *countries = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:[countryCodes count]];

for (NSString *countryCode in countryCodes)
{
    NSString *identifier = [NSLocale localeIdentifierFromComponents: [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject: countryCode forKey: NSLocaleCountryCode]];
    NSString *country = [[[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_UK"] displayNameForKey: NSLocaleIdentifier value: identifier];
    [countries addObject: country];
}

NSDictionary *codeForCountryDictionary = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjects:countryCodes forKeys:countries];

Now go through the 'codeForCountryDictionary' with the name of the country for which you require the code, for example,

NSLog(@"%@",[codeForCountryDictionary objectForKey:@"Spain"]);

would yield the result as 'ES', which is the 2 letter country code for spain.