Reading a PLIST file Dict of Dict

Question

I am trying to read a plist file which has Dictionary inside Dictionary

Example: ["Name":["Age":"Two", "Height":"Short"]]

This is how I am reading the file:

do {
    let data = try Data(contentsOf: URL(fileURLWithPath: path))
    let dataFromPlist = try PropertyListSerialization.propertyList(from: data, format: nil) as! [String:Any]
    print(dataFromPlist)
    } catch {
      print(error)
    }

But my result print(dataFromPlist) Is returning the following:

["Name": {
Age = 1;
Height = 1;
}]

How do I either convert the result of my current reading method or read the .plist file so that I get back exactly what I saved into it which is:

["Name":["Age":"Two", "Height":"Short"]]

Answer 1

Try setting the format of the dictionary explicitly if you are only working with a nested dictionary that is of type [String:String]:

let dataFromPlist = try PropertyListSerialization.propertyList(from: data, format: nil) as! [String : [String : String ] ]

Based on your sample data, I created a property list whose source file converts to this in xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Name</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Age</key>
        <string>Two</string>
        <key>Height</key>
        <string>Short</string>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

The output is as you would like:

["Name": ["Height": "Short", "Age": "Two"]]

The full example code with an Example.plist file in the root of the project:

let urlPath = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "Example", withExtension: "plist")
    if let urlPath = urlPath {
        do {
            let data = try Data(contentsOf: urlPath)
            let dataFromPlist = try PropertyListSerialization.propertyList(from: data, format: nil) as! [String : [String : String ] ]
            print(dataFromPlist)
        } catch {
            print(error)
        }
    }
}