Rather than having one big CodingKeys
enumeration with all the keys you'll need for decoding the JSON, I would advise splitting the keys up for each of your nested JSON objects, using nested enumerations to preserve the hierarchy:
// top-level JSON object keys
private enum CodingKeys : String, CodingKey {
// using camelCase case names, with snake_case raw values where necessary.
// the raw values are what's used as the actual keys for the JSON object,
// and default to the case name unless otherwise specified.
case id, user, reviewsCount = "reviews_count"
// "user" JSON object keys
enum User : String, CodingKey {
case username = "user_name", realInfo = "real_info"
// "real_info" JSON object keys
enum RealInfo : String, CodingKey {
case fullName = "full_name"
}
}
// nested JSON objects in "reviews" keys
enum ReviewsCount : String, CodingKey {
case count
}
}
This will make it easier to keep track of the keys at each level in your JSON.
Now, bearing in mind that:
A keyed container is used to decode a JSON object, and is decoded with a CodingKey
conforming type (such as the ones we've defined above).
An unkeyed container is used to decode a JSON array, and is decoded sequentially (i.e each time you call a decode or nested container method on it, it advances to the next element in the array). See the second part of the answer for how you can iterate through one.
After getting your top-level keyed container from the decoder with container(keyedBy:)
(as you have a JSON object at the top-level), you can repeatedly use the methods:
For example:
struct ServerResponse : Decodable {
var id: Int, username: String, fullName: String, reviewCount: Int
private enum CodingKeys : String, CodingKey { /* see above definition in answer */ }
init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
// top-level container
let container = try decoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
self.id = try container.decode(Int.self, forKey: .id)
// container for { "user_name": "Tester", "real_info": { "full_name": "Jon Doe" } }
let userContainer =
try container.nestedContainer(keyedBy: CodingKeys.User.self, forKey: .user)
self.username = try userContainer.decode(String.self, forKey: .username)
// container for { "full_name": "Jon Doe" }
let realInfoContainer =
try userContainer.nestedContainer(keyedBy: CodingKeys.User.RealInfo.self,
forKey: .realInfo)
self.fullName = try realInfoContainer.decode(String.self, forKey: .fullName)
// container for [{ "count": 4 }] – must be a var, as calling a nested container
// method on it advances it to the next element.
var reviewCountContainer =
try container.nestedUnkeyedContainer(forKey: .reviewsCount)
// container for { "count" : 4 }
// (note that we're only considering the first element of the array)
let firstReviewCountContainer =
try reviewCountContainer.nestedContainer(keyedBy: CodingKeys.ReviewsCount.self)
self.reviewCount = try firstReviewCountContainer.decode(Int.self, forKey: .count)
}
}
Example decoding:
let jsonData = """
{
"id": 1,
"user": {
"user_name": "Tester",
"real_info": {
"full_name":"Jon Doe"
}
},
"reviews_count": [
{
"count": 4
}
]
}
""".data(using: .utf8)!
do {
let response = try JSONDecoder().decode(ServerResponse.self, from: jsonData)
print(response)
} catch {
print(error)
}
// ServerResponse(id: 1, username: "Tester", fullName: "Jon Doe", reviewCount: 4)
Iterating through an unkeyed container
Considering the case where you want reviewCount
to be an [Int]
, where each element represents the value for the "count"
key in the nested JSON:
"reviews_count": [
{
"count": 4
},
{
"count": 5
}
]
You'll need to iterate through the nested unkeyed container, getting the nested keyed container at each iteration, and decoding the value for the "count"
key. You can use the count
property of the unkeyed container in order to pre-allocate the resultant array, and then the isAtEnd
property to iterate through it.
For example:
struct ServerResponse : Decodable {
var id: Int
var username: String
var fullName: String
var reviewCounts = [Int]()
// ...
init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
// ...
// container for [{ "count": 4 }, { "count": 5 }]
var reviewCountContainer =
try container.nestedUnkeyedContainer(forKey: .reviewsCount)
// pre-allocate the reviewCounts array if we can
if let count = reviewCountContainer.count {
self.reviewCounts.reserveCapacity(count)
}
// iterate through each of the nested keyed containers, getting the
// value for the "count" key, and appending to the array.
while !reviewCountContainer.isAtEnd {
// container for a single nested object in the array, e.g { "count": 4 }
let nestedReviewCountContainer = try reviewCountContainer.nestedContainer(
keyedBy: CodingKeys.ReviewsCount.self)
self.reviewCounts.append(
try nestedReviewCountContainer.decode(Int.self, forKey: .count)
)
}
}
}