Order the Categories (column) as they are stored in Parse backend

Question

I am trying to populate data of restaurants from Parse with the column "Category" data as section heading for the list of items. However the section titles for the items are getting displayed randomly. I want them to be displayed as they are stored in the backend. I tried doing [query orderByAscending:@"Category"]; which sorts the Categories alphabetically and has no change in the results. The below is my current implementation...

-(void) listAllItems {

    PFQuery *query  = [PFQuery queryWithClassName:[NSString stringWithString:self.restaurantName]];


    [query whereKey:@"DinnerLunch" containsString:self.lunchDinnerPreference];

    [query findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock:^(NSArray *objects, NSError *error) {
        if (!error) {

            for (PFObject *obj in objects) {

                self.curatedItemDictionary = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc]init];

                [_curatedItemDictionary setValue:[obj objectForKey:@"ItemName"] forKey:@"ItemName"];
                [_curatedItemDictionary setValue:[obj objectForKey:@"Price"] forKey:@"Price"];
                [_curatedItemDictionary setValue:[obj objectForKey:@"Category"] forKey:@"Category"];

                [_curatedItemDictionary setValue:@"" forKey:@"ModifiableItems"];
                _sectionsArray = [_sectionsDictionary objectForKey: [obj objectForKey:@"Category"]];

                if(nil == _sectionsArray){
                    self.sectionsArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
                }

                [_sectionsArray addObject:_curatedItemDictionary];
                [_sectionsDictionary setObject: _sectionsArray forKey: [obj objectForKey:@"Category"]];

                NSLog(@"categories keys are %@", [self.sectionsDictionary allKeys]);
            }            

            [self.tableView reloadData];
            } else {
                // Log details of the failure
                NSLog(@"Error: %@ %@", error, [error userInfo]);
            }
        }];
    }

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView{
    return [_sectionsDictionary count];
}

- (NSString *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView titleForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section{
    NSArray *keys = [self.sectionsDictionary allKeys];

    return [keys objectAtIndex:section];
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    NSArray *keys = [self.sectionsDictionary allKeys];
    id aKey = [keys objectAtIndex:section];
    NSMutableArray *arr = [self.sectionsDictionary objectForKey:aKey];
    return (arr) ? arr.count : 0;
}

Answer 1

I fixed it by creating a new NSMutableArray. Actually i read it from this post How can i get Original order of NSDictionary/NSMutableDictionary?

I added this line while iterating through my PFObjects [_categoryMutableArray addObject:[obj objectForKey:@"Category"]]; and then i used the below lines in my titleForHeaderInSection and numberOfRowsInSection

- (NSString *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView titleForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section{        
    return [_categoryMutableArray objectAtIndex:section];
}


- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
//    NSArray *keys = [self.sectionsDictionary allKeys];
    id aKey = [_categoryMutableArray objectAtIndex:section];
    NSMutableArray *arr = [self.sectionsDictionary objectForKey:aKey];
    return (arr) ? arr.count : 0;
}