How do I load a plist file from disk as a NSDictionary on iOS?

Question

I want to load the plist file from disk (documents, application cache, ...) not from a resource bundle.

score 41 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '11 at 17:16

You can load a plist from any accessible file path with -initWithContentsOfFile: or +dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:

Load a plist from a file, and create the file if it did not exist:

NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory,
                    NSUserDomainMask, YES); 
self.plistFile = [[paths objectAtIndex:0]
                    stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"example.plist"];

self.plist = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:plistFile];
if (!plist) {
    self.plist = [NSMutableDictionary new];
    [plist writeToFile:plistFile atomically:YES];
}

Note that the Plist's root object must be a dictionary. If the root object is an array, you should use [[NSArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:plistFile]; — Ash, Jan 02 '14 at 17:36

score 28 · Answer 2 · answered May 15 '14 at 10:05

28

A little cleaner:

NSString *plistPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"plistName" ofType:@"plist"]; 
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:plistPath];

answered May 15 '14 at 10:05

Smikey

8,106
3
46
74

depends on the directory, documentdirectory != resource path – M0rph3v5 Jan 12 '15 at 10:28

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 14 '22 at 14:35

1

It's always good to have a Swift version. It load a plist from the bundle.

if let plistPath = Bundle.main.path(forResource: "plistName", ofType: "plist") {
    let dict = NSDictionary(contentsOfFile: plistPath)
}

answered Feb 14 '22 at 14:35

Pau Ballada

1,491
14
13

How do I load a plist file from disk as a NSDictionary on iOS?

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