deep mutable copy of a NSMutableDictionary

Question

I am trying to create a deep-copy of a NSMutableDictionary and assign it to another NSMutableDictionary. The dictionary contains a bunch of arrays, each array containing names, and the key is an alphabet (the first letter of those names). So one entry in the dictionary is 'A' -> 'Adam', 'Apple'. Here's what I saw in a book, but I'm not sure if it works:

- (NSMutableDictionary *) mutableDeepCopy
{
    NSMutableDictionary * ret = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithCapacity: [self count]];
    NSArray *keys = [self allKeys];

    for (id key in keys)
    {
        id oneValue = [self valueForKey:key]; // should return the array
        id oneCopy = nil;

        if ([oneValue respondsToSelector: @selector(mutableDeepCopy)])
        {
            oneCopy = [oneValue mutableDeepCopy];
        }
        if ([oneValue respondsToSelector:@selector(mutableCopy)])
        {
            oneCopy = [oneValue mutableCopy];
        }

        if (oneCopy == nil) // not sure if this is needed
        {   
            oneCopy = [oneValue copy];
        }
        [ret setValue:oneCopy forKey:key];

        //[oneCopy release];
    }
    return ret;
}

• should the [onecopy release] be there or not?

• Here's how I'm going to call this method:

  self.namesForAlphabets = [self.allNames mutableDeepCopy];

Will that be ok? Or will it cause a leak? (assume that I declare self.namesForAlphabets as a property, and release it in dealloc).

Answer 1

Because of toll-free bridging, you can also use the CoreFoundation function CFPropertyListCreateDeepCopy:

NSMutableDictionary *mutableCopy = (NSMutableDictionary *)CFPropertyListCreateDeepCopy(kCFAllocatorDefault, (CFDictionaryRef)originalDictionary, kCFPropertyListMutableContainers);

Answer 2

Assuming all elements of the array implement the NSCoding protocol, you can do deep copies via archiving because archiving will preserve the mutability of objects.

Something like this:

id DeepCopyViaArchiving(id<NSCoding> anObject)
{
    NSData* archivedData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:anObject];
    return [[NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:archivedData] retain];
}

This isn't particularly efficient, though.

Answer 3

IMPORTANT: The question (and my code below) both deal with a very specific case, in which the NSMutableDictionary contains only arrays of strings. These solutions will not work for more complex examples. For more general case solutions, see the following:

• Tom Dalling's answer
• dreamlax's answer
• Source from yfujiki on GitHub Gist

---

Answer for this specific case:

Your code should work, but you will definitely need the [oneCopy release]. The new dictionary will retain the copied objects when you add them with setValue:forKey, so if you do not call [oneCopy release], all of those objects will be retained twice.

A good rule of thumb: if you alloc, retain or copy something, you must also release it.

Note: here is some sample code that would work for certain cases only. This works because your NSMutableDictionary contains only arrays of strings (no further deep copying required):

- (NSMutableDictionary *)mutableDeepCopy
{
    NSMutableDictionary * ret = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc]
                                  initWithCapacity:[self count]];

    NSMutableArray * array;

    for (id key in [self allKeys])
    {
        array = [(NSArray *)[self objectForKey:key] mutableCopy];
        [ret setValue:array forKey:key];
        [array release];
    }

    return ret;
}

Answer 4

Another technique that I have seen (which is not at all very efficient) is to use an NSPropertyListSerialization object to serialise your dictionary, then you de-serialise it but specify that you want mutable leaves and containers.

NSString *errorString = nil;
NSData *binData = 
  [NSPropertyListSerialization dataFromPropertyList:self.allNames
                                             format:NSPropertyListBinaryFormat_v1_0
                                        errorString:&errorString];

if (errorString) {
    // Something bad happened
    [errorString release];
}

self.namesForAlphabets = 
 [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListFromData:binData
                                  mutabilityOption:NSPropertyListMutableContainersAndLeaves
                                            format:NULL
                                  errorDescription:&errorString];

if (errorString) {
    // something bad happened
    [errorString release];
}

Again, this is not at all efficient.

Answer 5

Trying to figure out by checking respondToSelector(@selector(mutableCopy)) won't give the desired results as all NSObject-based objects respond to this selector (it's part of NSObject). Instead we have to query if an object conforms to NSMutableCopying or at least NSCopying. Here's my answer based on this gist mentioned in the accepted answer:

For NSDictionary:

@implementation NSDictionary (MutableDeepCopy)

//  As seen here (in the comments): https://gist.github.com/yfujiki/1664847
- (NSMutableDictionary *)mutableDeepCopy
{
    NSMutableDictionary *returnDict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithCapacity:self.count];

    NSArray *keys = [self allKeys];

    for(id key in keys) {
        id oneValue = [self objectForKey:key];
        id oneCopy = nil;

        if([oneValue respondsToSelector:@selector(mutableDeepCopy)]) {
            oneCopy = [oneValue mutableDeepCopy];
        } else if([oneValue conformsToProtocol:@protocol(NSMutableCopying)]) {
            oneCopy = [oneValue mutableCopy];
        } else if([oneValue conformsToProtocol:@protocol(NSCopying)]){
            oneCopy = [oneValue copy];
        } else {
            oneCopy = oneValue;
        }

        [returnDict setValue:oneCopy forKey:key];
    }

    return returnDict;
}

@end

For NSArray:

@implementation NSArray (MutableDeepCopy)

- (NSMutableArray *)mutableDeepCopy
{
    NSMutableArray *returnArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:self.count];

    for(id oneValue in self) {
        id oneCopy = nil;

        if([oneValue respondsToSelector:@selector(mutableDeepCopy)]) {
            oneCopy = [oneValue mutableDeepCopy];
        } else if([oneValue conformsToProtocol:@protocol(NSMutableCopying)]) {
            oneCopy = [oneValue mutableCopy];
        } else if([oneValue conformsToProtocol:@protocol(NSCopying)]){
            oneCopy = [oneValue copy];
        } else {
            oneCopy = oneValue;
        }

        [returnArray addObject:oneCopy];
    }

    return returnArray;
}

@end

Both methods have the same internal to-copy-or-not-to-copy logic and that could be extracted into a separate method but I left it like this for clarity.

Answer 6

For ARC - note kCFPropertyListMutableContainersAndLeaves for truly deep mutability.

    NSMutableDictionary* mutableDict = (NSMutableDictionary *)
      CFBridgingRelease(
          CFPropertyListCreateDeepCopy(kCFAllocatorDefault, 
           (CFDictionaryRef)someNSDict, 
           kCFPropertyListMutableContainersAndLeaves));

Answer 7

Thought I'd update with an answer if you're using ARC.

The solution Weva has provided works just fine. Nowadays you could do it like this:

NSMutableDictionary *mutableCopy = (NSMutableDictionary *)CFBridgingRelease(CFPropertyListCreateDeepCopy(kCFAllocatorDefault, (CFDictionaryRef)originalDict, kCFPropertyListMutableContainers));

Answer 8

Useful answers here, but CFPropertyListCreateDeepCopy doesn't handle [NSNull null] in the data, which is pretty normal with JSON decoded data, for example.

I'm using this category:

    #import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

    @interface NSObject (ATMutableDeepCopy)
    - (id)mutableDeepCopy;
    @end

Implementation (feel free to alter / extend):

    @implementation NSObject (ATMutableDeepCopy)

    - (id)mutableDeepCopy
    {
        return [self copy];
    }

    @end

    #pragma mark - NSDictionary

    @implementation NSDictionary (ATMutableDeepCopy)

    - (id)mutableDeepCopy
    {
        return [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithObjects:self.allValues.mutableDeepCopy
                                                  forKeys:self.allKeys.mutableDeepCopy];
    }

    @end

    #pragma mark - NSArray

    @implementation NSArray (ATMutableDeepCopy)

    - (id)mutableDeepCopy
    {
        NSMutableArray *const mutableDeepCopy = [NSMutableArray new];
        for (id object in self) {
            [mutableDeepCopy addObject:[object mutableDeepCopy]];
        }

        return mutableDeepCopy;
    }

    @end

    #pragma mark - NSNull

    @implementation NSNull (ATMutableDeepCopy)

    - (id)mutableDeepCopy
    {
        return self;
    }

    @end

Example extensions – strings are left as normal copies. You could override this if you want to be able to in place edit them. I only needed to monkey with a deep down dictionary for some testing, so I've not implemented that.