---
title: Introduction to Property Lists
framework: cocoa
role: article
path: apple-archive/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/PropertyLists/Introduction
---

# Introduction to Property Lists

Explains how to use structured, textual representations of data in Cocoa.

## Organization of This Document

This document consists of the following chapters:

- [Quick Start for Property Lists](../QuickStartPlist/QuickStartPlist.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000048i-CH4-SW5) is a mini-tutorial on property lists, giving you a “hands-on” familiarity with XML property lists and the Objective-C serialization API. - [About Property Lists](../AboutPropertyLists/AboutPropertyLists.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000048i-CH3-SW2) explains what property lists are and when you should use them. - [Creating Property Lists Programmatically](../CreatePropListProgram/CreatePropListProgram.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000048i-CH5-SW1) shows how you can create hierarchically structured property lists using the APIs of Cocoa and Core Foundation. - [Understanding XML Property Lists](../UnderstandXMLPlist/UnderstandXMLPlist.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000048i-CH6-SW1) describes the format of XML property lists. - [Serializing a Property List](../SerializePlist/SerializePlist.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000048i-CH7-SW1) discusses how to serialize and deserialize property lists between their runtime and static representations). - [Reading and Writing Property-List Data](../ReadWritePlistData/ReadWritePlistData.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000048i-CH8-SW1) describes how to save property lists to files or URL resources and how to restore them later. - [Old-Style ASCII Property Lists](../OldStylePlists/OldStylePLists.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20001012-BBCBDBJE) is an appendix that describes the format of old-style (OpenStep) ASCII property lists.

[Next](../QuickStartPlist/QuickStartPlist.html)

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