Storing a NSArray of my Custom Objects in NSUserDefaults

Question

The requirement is that I want to store NSArray of my custom objects in NSUserDefaults. Following is the code from my example

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    sampleArray=[[NSMutableArray alloc]init];

    MyClass *obj1=[[MyClass alloc]init];
    obj1.name=@"Reetu";
    obj1.countOpen=1;
    NSArray *subArray = [[NSArray alloc]initWithObjects:@"likes131",@"likes132",          @"likes133", nil];
    obj1.hobbies = [[NSArray alloc]initWithObjects:@"like11", @"like12", subArray, nil];
    [sampleArray addObject:obj1];

    MyClass *obj2=[[MyClass alloc]init];
    obj2.name=@"Pinku";
    obj2.countOpen=2;
    NSArray *subArray2 = [[NSArray alloc]initWithObjects:obj1 ,@"likes231",@"likes232",  @"likes233", obj1 ,nil];
obj2.hobbies = [[NSArray alloc]initWithObjects:@"like21", @"like22", subArray2 ,nil];
[sampleArray addObject:obj2];

    MyClass *obj3=[[MyClass alloc]init];
    obj3.name=@"Mike";
    obj3.countOpen=6;

    obj3.hobbies = [[NSArray alloc]initWithObjects:obj1 , obj2 ,@"likes000", nil];
    [sampleArray addObject:obj3];

    //First lets encode it
    NSUserDefaults *userDefault=[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
    NSData *myEncodedObject = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:sampleArray];
    [userDefault setObject:myEncodedObject forKey:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"sample"]];
    [userDefault synchronize];

    //Lets decode it now
    NSData *myDecodedObject = [userDefault objectForKey: [NSString stringWithFormat:@"sample"]];
    NSArray *decodedArray =[NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData: myDecodedObject];

    //Print the array received from User's Default 
    for (MyClass *item in decodedArray) {

        NSLog(@"name=%@",item.name);
        NSLog(@"LIKES TO %@",item.hobbies);
    }

    }

This is my custom class confirming to the NSCoding protocol

- (void)encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)encoder
{

    //Encode properties, other class variables, etc
    [encoder encodeObject:self.name forKey:@"name"];
    [encoder encodeObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:self.countOpen] forKey:@"destinationCode"];
    [encoder encodeObject:self.hobbies forKey:@"likesTo"];

}

- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)decoder
{
    self = [super init];
    if( self != nil )
    {
        self.name = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:@"name"];
        self.countOpen = [[decoder decodeObjectForKey:@"countOpen"] intValue];
        self.hobbies = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:@"likesTo"];
    }
    return self;
}

here is the output:-

2013-10-22 17:01:47.118 Sample[1056:c07] name=Reetu
2013-10-22 17:01:47.120 Sample[1056:c07] LIKES TO (
    like11,
    like12,
        (
        likes131,
        likes132,
        likes133
    )
)
2013-10-22 17:01:47.121 Sample[1056:c07] name=Pinku
2013-10-22 17:01:47.123 Sample[1056:c07] LIKES TO (
    like21,
    like22,
         (
         "<MyClass: 0x6e32910>",
         likes231,
        likes232,
        likes233,
        "<MyClass: 0x6e32910>"
     )
 )
 2013-10-22 17:01:47.125 Sample[1056:c07] name=Mike
 2013-10-22 17:01:47.127 Sample[1056:c07] LIKES TO (
    "<MyClass: 0x6e32910>",
    "<MyClass: 0x6e1f610>",
    likes000
 )

The problem is <MyClass: 0X632910>. I was expecting it to be contents of obj1 itself.

Answer 1

The problem isn't with NSUserDefaults. It's with how you are printing the information out:

You should override -(NSString*) description, probably to read something like this:

-(NSString*) description
{
    return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"<%@ - name:%@ open:%d>", self.class self.name, self.countOpen];
}