Pesky new lines and whitespace in XML reader class

Question

I'm using a class written by a blogger (http://troybrant.net/blog/) that takes an XML string and spits out a NSDictionary.

It's beautiful...works perfectly, except I end up with a weird configuration of newlines and white space at the beginning of many element values.

I haven't been able to figure out why. I'm posting the class here so I can get a second pair of eyes...see if anyone notices anything suspect in the method he is using.

//
//  XMLReader.m
//

#import "XMLReader.h"

NSString *const kXMLReaderTextNodeKey = @"text";

@interface XMLReader (Internal)

- (id)initWithError:(NSError **)error;
- (NSDictionary *)objectWithData:(NSData *)data;

@end


@implementation XMLReader

#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Public methods

+ (NSDictionary *)dictionaryForXMLData:(NSData *)data error:(NSError **)error
{
    XMLReader *reader = [[XMLReader alloc] initWithError:error];
    NSDictionary *rootDictionary = [reader objectWithData:data];
    [reader release];
    return rootDictionary;
}

+ (NSDictionary *)dictionaryForXMLString:(NSString *)string error:(NSError **)error
{
    NSData *data = [string dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
    return [XMLReader dictionaryForXMLData:data error:error];
}

#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Parsing

- (id)initWithError:(NSError **)error
{
    if ((self = [super init]))
    {
        errorPointer = error;
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)dealloc
{
    [dictionaryStack release];
    [textInProgress release];
    [super dealloc];
}

- (NSDictionary *)objectWithData:(NSData *)data
{
    // Clear out any old data
    [dictionaryStack release];
    [textInProgress release];

    dictionaryStack = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    textInProgress = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];

    // Initialize the stack with a fresh dictionary
    [dictionaryStack addObject:[NSMutableDictionary dictionary]];

    // Parse the XML
    NSXMLParser *parser = [[NSXMLParser alloc] initWithData:data];
    parser.delegate = self;
    BOOL success = [parser parse];

    // Return the stack's root dictionary on success
    if (success)
    {
        NSDictionary *resultDict = [dictionaryStack objectAtIndex:0];
        return resultDict;
    }

    return nil;
}

#pragma mark -
#pragma mark NSXMLParserDelegate methods

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didStartElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName attributes:(NSDictionary *)attributeDict
{
    // Get the dictionary for the current level in the stack
    NSMutableDictionary *parentDict = [dictionaryStack lastObject];

    // Create the child dictionary for the new element, and initilaize it with the attributes
    NSMutableDictionary *childDict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
    [childDict addEntriesFromDictionary:attributeDict];

    // If there's already an item for this key, it means we need to create an array
    id existingValue = [parentDict objectForKey:elementName];
    if (existingValue)
    {
        NSMutableArray *array = nil;
        if ([existingValue isKindOfClass:[NSMutableArray class]])
        {
            // The array exists, so use it
            array = (NSMutableArray *) existingValue;
        }
        else
        {
            // Create an array if it doesn't exist
            array = [NSMutableArray array];
            [array addObject:existingValue];

            // Replace the child dictionary with an array of children dictionaries
            [parentDict setObject:array forKey:elementName];
        }

        // Add the new child dictionary to the array
        [array addObject:childDict];
    }
    else
    {
        // No existing value, so update the dictionary
        [parentDict setObject:childDict forKey:elementName];
    }

    // Update the stack
    [dictionaryStack addObject:childDict];
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didEndElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName
{
    // Update the parent dict with text info
    NSMutableDictionary *dictInProgress = [dictionaryStack lastObject];

    // Set the text property
    if ([textInProgress length] > 0)
    {
        [dictInProgress setObject:textInProgress forKey:kXMLReaderTextNodeKey];

        // Reset the text
        [textInProgress release];
        textInProgress = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
    }

    // Pop the current dict
    [dictionaryStack removeLastObject];
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser foundCharacters:(NSString *)string
{
    // Build the text value
    [textInProgress appendString:string];
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser parseErrorOccurred:(NSError *)parseError
{
    // Set the error pointer to the parser's error object
    *errorPointer = parseError;
}

@end

If this is an annoying question, I apologize (and please don't vote me down out of spite). I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here and lack of the coding prowess to find it myself. (I'm new to Obj-C)

Clif

Solution:

Change this line:

[dictInProgress setObject:textInProgress forKey:kXMLReaderTextNodeKey];

To this line:

[dictInProgress setObject:[textInProgress stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]] forKey:kXMLReaderTextNodeKey];

Ethnology

you are a life saver thanks much – Pomfrey

Answer 1

You could trim the values you get out of that class:

NSString *trimmedValue = [value stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];

That would remove leading and trailing white space.

Vicarage

I've been trying something like that, but the frustrating part is I'll have a value like this: " \n \n \n The Awesome Value". So I have to loop through until I hit the value. Very annoying. Will that characterset appropriately handle this scenario? (If so, that's AWESOME...I've been using newLineCharacterSet..never noticed that one) – Ethnology

I think this character set should cope with any combination of new lines and spaces at the start. Give it a try :) – Vicarage