Processing NSDictionary Data

Question

Below is data from the web service. I would like to combine the key and pair into array. Basically the data i received is array of dictionary with key value pair, but again a key 'records' is array of dictionary. How to process this ? I had given my desired output below. It would be great if you someone can help me. Please note, 'records' can be any 1, 2 or more (for illustration purpose, i had given the record count as 1 and 2)

<__NSCFArray 0x7feb44c0e400>(
{
    a = "string";
    b = "string";
    records =     (
                {
            aa = "first array's first record";
            bb = "first array's first record";
            cc = "first array's first record";
        }
    );
    c = "somevalue";
    d = "some value";
    e = "some value";
},


{
    a = "string";
    b = "string";
    records =     (
                {
            aa = "second array's first record";
            bb = "second array's first record";
            cc = "second array's first record";
        },
                {
            aa = "second array's second record";
            bb = "second array's second record";
            cc = "second array's second record";
        }
    );
    c = "some value";
    d = "some value";
    e = "some value";
}
)

I want the output like the below

  {
a = "string";
b = "string";
aa = "first array's first record";
bb = "first array's first record";
cc = "first array's first record";
c = "somevalue";
d = "some value";
e = "some value";
},

{
a = "string";
b = "string";
aa = "second array's first record";
bb = "second array's first record";
cc = "second array's first record";
c = "some value";
d = "some value";
e = "some value";
},

{
a = "string";
b = "string";
aa = "second array's second record";
bb = "second array's second record";
cc = "second array's second record";
c = "some value";
d = "some value";
e = "some value";
}

Tried

NSDictionary *receivedDictionary = self.responseDictionary;
  NSArray *finalArray = [[NSArray alloc]init];
  NSMutableArray *array;
  for (int i=0; i<[receivedDictionary count]; i++) {
     array = [[receivedDictionary valueForKey:@"records"]objectAtIndex:i];

  }
  finalArray = [array arrayByAddingObjectsFromArray:array];

Edited - Output

{
        a = "some string";
        b = "some string";
        records =         (
                        {
                aa = 75;
                bb = "some string";
                cc = "some string ";
            },
                        {
                aa = 76;
                bb = "some string";
                cc = "some string";
            }
        );
        c = "some value";
        d = "some value";
        e = "some value";
    }
)

If you see the above actual json object, there are 75 and 76 in aa, but only one value is saved in the final array as given below.

{
        a = "some string";
        b = "some string";
        c = "some value";
        d = "some value";
        aa = 76;
        bb = "some string"";
        cc = "some string";
        e = "some string";
    }
)

Answer 1

I think this should do what you want, you will end up with an array containing a dictionary for every record object. (Assuming that inputArray is an NSArray in the format of your question.) I've tried to comment what is happening on each line.

//First we initialize an empty array to store all the values.   
NSMutableArray *finalOutput = [NSMutableArray array];
//Next we loop through every dictionary in your input array.
for (NSDictionary *outerDict in inputArray) {
    //Make a copy of that dictionary
    NSMutableDictionary *outerCopy = [outerDict mutableCopy];
    //but remove the records object as we'll add that back again in the next step
    [outerCopy removeObjectForKey:@"records"];
    //Now we loop through all the records for outerDict
    for (NSDictionary *record in outerDict[@"records"]) {
        //Make a mutable copy
        NSMutableDictionary *flattenedDict = [record mutableCopy];
        //Add back the values from the outerCopy
        [flattenedDict addEntriesFromDictionary:outerCopy];
        //And add this final flattened dictionary to the output array
        [finalOutput addObject:flattenedDict];
    }
}