If your file is small, then @mipadi's method will probably be just fine. However, if your file is large (> 1MB, perhaps?), then you may want to consider reading the file line-by-line. I wrote a class once to do that, which I'll paste here:
//DDFileReader.h
@interface DDFileReader : NSObject {
NSString * filePath;
NSFileHandle * fileHandle;
unsigned long long currentOffset;
unsigned long long totalFileLength;
NSString * lineDelimiter;
NSUInteger chunkSize;
}
@property (nonatomic, copy) NSString * lineDelimiter;
@property (nonatomic) NSUInteger chunkSize;
- (id) initWithFilePath:(NSString *)aPath;
- (NSString *) readLine;
- (NSString *) readTrimmedLine;
#if NS_BLOCKS_AVAILABLE
- (void) enumerateLinesUsingBlock:(void(^)(NSString*, BOOL *))block;
#endif
@end
//DDFileReader.m
#import "DDFileReader.h"
@interface NSData (DDAdditions)
- (NSRange) rangeOfData_dd:(NSData *)dataToFind;
@end
@implementation NSData (DDAdditions)
- (NSRange) rangeOfData_dd:(NSData *)dataToFind {
const void * bytes = [self bytes];
NSUInteger length = [self length];
const void * searchBytes = [dataToFind bytes];
NSUInteger searchLength = [dataToFind length];
NSUInteger searchIndex = 0;
NSRange foundRange = {NSNotFound, searchLength};
for (NSUInteger index = 0; index < length; index++) {
if (((char *)bytes)[index] == ((char *)searchBytes)[searchIndex]) {
//the current character matches
if (foundRange.location == NSNotFound) {
foundRange.location = index;
}
searchIndex++;
if (searchIndex >= searchLength) { return foundRange; }
} else {
searchIndex = 0;
foundRange.location = NSNotFound;
}
}
return foundRange;
}
@end
@implementation DDFileReader
@synthesize lineDelimiter, chunkSize;
- (id) initWithFilePath:(NSString *)aPath {
if (self = [super init]) {
fileHandle = [NSFileHandle fileHandleForReadingAtPath:aPath];
if (fileHandle == nil) {
[self release]; return nil;
}
lineDelimiter = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:@"\n"];
[fileHandle retain];
filePath = [aPath retain];
currentOffset = 0ULL;
chunkSize = 10;
[fileHandle seekToEndOfFile];
totalFileLength = [fileHandle offsetInFile];
//we don't need to seek back, since readLine will do that.
}
return self;
}
- (void) dealloc {
[fileHandle closeFile];
[fileHandle release], fileHandle = nil;
[filePath release], filePath = nil;
[lineDelimiter release], lineDelimiter = nil;
currentOffset = 0ULL;
[super dealloc];
}
- (NSString *) readLine {
if (currentOffset >= totalFileLength) { return nil; }
NSData * newLineData = [lineDelimiter dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
[fileHandle seekToFileOffset:currentOffset];
NSMutableData * currentData = [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
BOOL shouldReadMore = YES;
NSAutoreleasePool * readPool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
while (shouldReadMore) {
if (currentOffset >= totalFileLength) { break; }
NSData * chunk = [fileHandle readDataOfLength:chunkSize];
NSRange newLineRange = [chunk rangeOfData_dd:newLineData];
if (newLineRange.location != NSNotFound) {
//include the length so we can include the delimiter in the string
chunk = [chunk subdataWithRange:NSMakeRange(0, newLineRange.location+[newLineData length])];
shouldReadMore = NO;
}
[currentData appendData:chunk];
currentOffset += [chunk length];
}
[readPool release];
NSString * line = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:currentData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
[currentData release];
return [line autorelease];
}
- (NSString *) readTrimmedLine {
return [[self readLine] stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
}
#if NS_BLOCKS_AVAILABLE
- (void) enumerateLinesUsingBlock:(void(^)(NSString*, BOOL*))block {
NSString * line = nil;
BOOL stop = NO;
while (stop == NO && (line = [self readLine])) {
block(line, &stop);
}
}
#endif
@end
Then to use this, you'd do:
DDFileReader * reader = [[DDFileReader alloc] initWithFilePath:pathToMyFile];
NSString * line = nil;
while ((line = [reader readLine])) {
NSLog(@"read line: %@", line);
}
[reader release];
Or (for 10.6+ and iOS 4+):
DDFileReader * reader = [[DDFileReader alloc] initWithFilePath:pathToMyFile];
[reader enumerateLinesUsingBlock:^(NSString * line, BOOL * stop) {
NSLog(@"read line: %@", line);
}];
[reader release];
