Swift JSON string to dictionary not able to parse all values - json

Question

I download a JSON file from my database which returns the following string:
["ingredients": asdasdasd,
"price": 14,
"_id":
{
"$oid" = 5e8e3706f00ca80f251485c3;
},
"category": sadad,
"available": Disponibile,
"name": asdadasd]
I then convert this string to data to then convert it to a Dictionary<String, Any>
if let myData = responseString.data(using: .utf8) {
do {
let myArray = try (JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: myData) as? [Dictionary<String, Any>])!
completion(myArray, nil)
} catch let error as NSError {
print("error:" + String(describing: error))
completion(nil, error)
}
}
This works perfectly fine, as I can get, let's say, the price parameter doing myArray["price"].
The problem arises when I try to get the Id parameter, as when I do myArray["_id"] I get:
{
"$oid" = 5e8e370af00ca80f251485cf;
}
I would like to directly get the ID parameter, and I can't parse this value to JSON as it is not in JSON format. At the moment I am fixing the issue by manipulating this string replacing the = with :, removing the ; and other nasty stuff, but I am sure there is a more efficient way to solve the issue.

Answer 1

myArray["_id"] is a Dictionary in your myArray.So you have to convert your myArray["_id"] to dictionary and then you can access the id.
try this
let id = (myArray["_id"] as Dictionary ?? [:])["$oid"] as? String ?? ""

Answer 2

What you've posted looks like debugger print output, not JSON from your server. I'm going to assume that your JSON actually looks like this:
[
{
"ingredients": "asdasdasd",
"price": 14,
"_id": {
"$oid": "5e8e3706f00ca80f251485c3"
},
"category": "sadad",
"available": "Disponibile",
"name": "asdadasd"
}
]
Given that, you could use a model struct like
struct Recipe: Codable {
let ingredients: String
let price: Int
let id: ID
let category, available, name: String
enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
case ingredients, price
case id = "_id"
case category, available, name
}
}
struct ID: Codable {
let oid: String
enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
case oid = "$oid"
}
}
typealias Recipes = [Recipe]
to parse it using
do {
let recipes = try JSONDecoder(Recipes.self, from: myData)
let firstOid = recipe.first?.id.oid
} catch {
print(error)
}
That said, I would recommend avoiding generic names like myArray for your variables.
Also, when retrieving JSON data from your server, it's not necessary to first convert them to a String and then back to Data before passing it to the JSON parser - simply pass the raw server data along.