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NSPropertyListSerialization

Overview

The NSPropertyListSerialization class provides methods that convert property list objects to and from several serialized formats. Property list objects include NSData, NSString, NSArray, NSDictionary, NSDate, and number objects.

Tasks

Constructors

• NSPropertyListSerialization

Serializing Property Lists

• XMLDataFromPropertyList
• dataFromPropertyList
• stringFromPropertyList

Testing Property Lists

• propertyListIsValidForFormat

Deserializing Property Lists

• propertyListFromData
• propertyListFromString
• propertyListFromXMLData

Static Methods

dataFromPropertyList

Creates a data object, serializes aPropertyList into it, and returns the data object.

public static NSData dataFromPropertyList(Object aPropertyList)

Discussion

aPropertyList must be a kind of NSData, string, NSArray, or NSDictionary. Container objects must also contain only these kinds of objects.

Availability

• Deprecated in Mac OS X v10.2 and later.

See Also

• propertyListFromData

Returns an NSData object in the property list format specified by plist or null if plist does not represent a valid property list.

public static NSData dataFromPropertyList(Object plist, int format, String[] errorString)

Discussion

plist must be a kind of NSData, string, number, NSDate, NSArray, or NSDictionary. Container objects must also contain only these kinds of objects. On return, if the conversion is successful, errorString is null. If the conversion fails, errorString points to a string describing the nature of the error. Possible values for format are described in “Constants.”

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.2 and later.

See Also

• propertyListFromData

propertyListFromData

Returns a property list object corresponding to the representation in serialization or null if serialization does not represent a property list.

public static Object propertyListFromData(NSData serialization)

Discussion

If the property list object is a dictionary or an array, the recomposed object is made immutable.

Availability

• Deprecated in Mac OS X v10.2 and later.

See Also

• dataFromPropertyList

Returns a property list object corresponding to the representation in data, or null if data does not represent a valid property list in a supported format.

public static Object propertyListFromData(NSData data, int opt, int[] format, String[] errorString)

Discussion

The mutability option opt determines whether the property list’s containers and/or leaves are mutable. If the property list is valid, the format is returned in the first element of the array format. Possible values for opt and format are described in “Constants.”

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.2 and later.

See Also

• dataFromPropertyList

propertyListFromString

Returns a property list object corresponding to the representation in serialization or null if serialization does not represent a property list.

public static Object propertyListFromString(String serialization)

Discussion

If the property list object is a dictionary or an array, the recomposed object is made immutable. This method can parse both XML and non-XML style property list strings.

See Also

• stringFromPropertyList

propertyListFromXMLData

Returns a property list object corresponding to the XML representation in serialization or null if serialization does not represent a property list.

public static Object propertyListFromXMLData(NSData serialization)

Discussion

If the property list object is a dictionary or an array, the recomposed object is made immutable.

Availability

• Deprecated in Mac OS X v10.2 and later.

See Also

• XMLDataFromPropertyList

propertyListIsValidForFormat

Returns true if plist is a valid property list in format format, false otherwise.

public static boolean propertyListIsValidForFormat(Object plist, int format)

Discussion

Possible values for format are listed in “Constants.”

Availability

• Available in Mac OS X v10.2 and later.

stringFromPropertyList

Creates an old-style string representation (non-XML) of aPropertyList.

public static String stringFromPropertyList(Object aPropertyList)

Discussion

aPropertyList must be a kind of NSData, NSString, NSDate, number class, NSArray, or NSDictionary. Container objects must also contain only these same kinds of objects. When read back by propertyListFromString, NSDate and numerical values are interpreted as strings.

XMLDataFromPropertyList

Creates a data object, serializes aPropertyList into it in XML format, and returns the data object.

public static NSData XMLDataFromPropertyList(Object aPropertyList)

Discussion

aPropertyList must be a kind of NSData, string, NSDate, number, NSArray, or NSDictionary. Container objects must also contain only these same kinds of objects.

Note that XML can handle more data types than the binary serialization created by dataFromPropertyList.

Availability

• Deprecated in Mac OS X v10.2 and later.

See Also

• propertyListFromXMLData

Constants

The following table describes the constants used to specify mutability options in property lists:

The following table describes the constants used to specify property list serialization format:

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