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iOS

Posted by Alex Taylor
Alex Taylor
2,758 Points

How to reference a table of data

Hi,

Can anyone tell me how I go about referencing a table of data within an app? I want to be able to do a look-up to a data table as part of a calculation and return the result to the screen. I have never done this before and it would be great to get some direction. I am not sure of the best way to format the data, store it, and reference it?

Thanks heaps, Alex

2 Answers

Stone Preston
Stone Preston
42,016 Points

yes a database would work fine and is probably the best way to do this. Have a look at Parse.com. Parse allows you to create and use a database very easily. The Build A Self Destructing Message app course here covers using Parse.com as a backend. once you learn how to use and interact with Parse its very easy to work with. You can import csv files into your database which is nice if you already have all the data and just need to import it.

There is really no quick and easy solution, working with large amounts of data and managing it is not a beginner friendly concept, but Parse is probably the easiest way to do it.

Alex Taylor
Alex Taylor
2,758 Points

Thanks Stone, I took your advice and used parse and it is working great. Thank you so much!

Stone Preston
Stone Preston
42,016 Points
Stone Preston
Stone Preston
42,016 Points

you could store the data as an NSArray of dictionaries and then use methods provided by NSArray or a for loop to look up what you need. you could store the NSArray as a property to your view controller and fill it with data in viewDidLoad. whenever you need to reference it you would just use self.theNameOfTheProperty

Alex Taylor
Alex Taylor
2,758 Points

Hi Steve, thanks so much for your reply! Would I use the method you suggested even if the data table consists of 9 columns with 40 rows of data? I started trying to look at sqlite3 and setting up the table as a database, I have been following tutorials but I am finding it quite tricky, so would be great to know the easiest way to set this up! I am working on it at the moment and am a bit stuck!

Thanks again, Alex