check NSString variable for NSDictionary value [NSNull null]

Question

I am creating a XML with xmlWriter, I have values in an NSDictionary that has several key/value pairs, however some of these values are [NSNull null], I pass every value into its own NSString.

In my XMLWriter method I have an if statment that checks if this is a particular method call to the db if it is then I would like to create writeAttributes only for the NSString variables that are not equal too [NSNull null].

I am not sure how to dynamically check each variable.. I thought maybe I could do an if statment but thats not going to work because as soon as one of the variables dose not equal [NSNull null] then its going to jump out of this part of the XMLWritter when there might be more variables that are needed for the xml.

This is the failed Idea that I had so you understand what I am trying to do

// Method Params --->
- (NSMutableData *) addMethodParams
{  
    //allocate serializer (this is using the xmlWriter class)
    id <XMLStreamWriter> xmlWriter = [[XMLWriter alloc] init];
    [xmlWriter writeStartElement:@"Eng"];
        [xmlWriter writeStartElement:@"Parameters"];
            [xmlWriter writeStartElement:@"Vars"];
    if ([methodName isEqualToString:@"SeriesSearch"]) // name of method currently being requested
    {
        if ((NSNull *) Series != [NSNull null]) { // if this is null then its jumped
            [xmlWriter writeAttribute:@"Code" value:Series];
        }
        else if ((NSNull *) IDSeries != [NSNull null]){ //if this is !null then it enters the if statement however it then will jump out and not check over any of the other if statments
            [xmlWriter writeAttribute:@"ManufacturerID" value:IDSeries]; 
        }
        //..


    }
            [xmlWriter writeEndElement];
        [xmlWriter writeEndElement];
    [xmlWriter writeEndElement];

So the question is how can I add the variables that have values into my xml the stop the variables that are null? to create I guess a sort of dynamic xml writer.

Answer 1

Usually, when you have to write the same code more than twice (or even more than once), you should think about creating a method or function. So you could write a method like this:

- (void)writeAttribute:(NSString *)name ifNonNullValue:(id)value toWriter:(id<XMLStreamWriter>)writer {
    if (value != [NSNull null]) {
        [writer writeAttribute:name value:value];
    }
}

and use it like this:

[self writeAttribute:@"Code" ifNonNullValue:Series toWriter:xmlWriter];
[self writeAttribute:@"ManufacturerID" ifNonNullValue:IDSeries toWriter:xmlWriter];
...

You could also consider adding a category to XMLWriter. A category lets you add your own methods to any class. So you could add a category like this:

// XMLWriter+NonNull.h

#import "XMLWriter.h"

@interface XMLWriter (NonNull)

- (void)writeAttribute:(NSString *)name ifNonNullValue:(id)value;

@end

// XMLWriter+NonNull.m

@implementation XMLWriter (NonNull)

- (void)writeAttribute:(NSString *)name ifNonNullValue:(id)value {
    if (value != [NSNull null]) {
        [self writeAttribute:name value:value];
    }
}

@end

and use it like this:

// At top of file
#import "XMLWriter+NonNull.h"

...
    [xmlWriter writeAttribute:@"Code" ifNonNullValue:Series];
    [xmlWriter writeAttribute:@"ManufacturerID" ifNonNullValue:IDSeries];
    ...

Answer 2

Since the values come from the dictionary, you can set up a loop to write all attributes:

NSDictionary *keyToAttr = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithValuesAndKeys:
    @"Code", @"Series", @"ManufacturerID", @"IDSeries", nil];

for (key in keyToAttr) {
    NSString *data = [dataDict objectForKey:key];
    if (data && ((NSNull*)data != [NSNull null])) {
        NSString *attrName = [keyToAttr objectForKey:key];
        [xmlWriter writeAttribute:attrName data]; 
    }
}