Contents

write(toFile:atomically:)

Writes a property list representation of the contents of the dictionary to a given path.

Declaration

func write(toFile path: String, atomically useAuxiliaryFile: Bool) -> Bool

Parameters

  • path:

    The path at which to write the file.

    If path contains a tilde (~) character, you must expand it with Expandingtildeinpath before invoking this method.

  • useAuxiliaryFile:

    A flag that specifies whether the file should be written atomically.

    If useAuxiliaryFile is True, the dictionary is written to an auxiliary file, and then the auxiliary file is renamed to path. If useAuxiliaryFile is False, the dictionary is written directly to path. The True option guarantees that path, if it exists at all, won’t be corrupted even if the system should crash during writing.

Return Value

true if the file is written successfully, otherwise false.

Discussion

This method recursively validates that all the contained objects are property list objects (instances of NSData, NSDate, NSNumber, NSString, NSArray, or NSDictionary) before writing out the file, and returns false if all the objects are not property list objects, since the resultant file would not be a valid property list.

If the dictionary’s contents are all property list objects, the file written by this method can be used to initialize a new dictionary with the class method dictionaryWithContentsOfFile: or the instance method init(contentsOfFile:).

If you need greater control over the property list representation, use PropertyListSerialization instead.

For more information about property lists, see Property List Programming Guide.

See Also

Storing Dictionaries