Greetings, traveler!

Have you ever tried printing out server response data in the console? I guess you do. Let’s consider an example.

let json = """
{
    "id": "22",
    "title": "livsycode",
    "info": {
        "info1": { "status": "ready" },
        "info2": { "time": "22:11" },
    }
}
"""

let jsonData = json.data(using: .utf8) ?? .init()

To check out the result, we can create an extension for Data.

extension Data {
    var string: String {
        String(decoding: self, as: UTF8.self)
    }
}

Then, use a breakpoint to print out the result:

po jsonData.string

We will gain this result then:

"{\n    \"id\": \"22\",\n    \"title\": \"livsycode\",\n    \"info\": {\n        \"info1\": { \"status\": \"ready\" },\n        \"info2\": { \"time\": \"22:11\" },\n    }\n}"

It could be more convenient, so we can consider a different approach. In Swift, there are two types of strings: String and NSString. String is the newer type, and it is often preferred over NSString, which is older and used in Objective-C as well. However, you can use NSString for pretty printing. It will provide a nicer debug description since it automatically removes some characters like backslashes. So, to achieve a better string visualization in the console, we should use NSString instead of String. To create a pretty printed string, we must follow several steps:

1. Create jsonObject.
2. Create data with the .prettyPrinted option.
3. Create NSString.

Now, we can put it all together inside an extension.

extension Data {
    var jsonString: NSString? {
        guard
            let jsonObject = try? JSONSerialization.jsonObject(
                with: self,
                options: []
            ),
            let data = try? JSONSerialization.data(
                withJSONObject: jsonObject,
                options: [.prettyPrinted]
            ),
            let json = NSString(
                data: data,
                encoding: String.Encoding.utf8.rawValue
            )
        else { return nil }
        
        return json
    }
}

Let’s check out the result.

po jsonData.jsonString

▿ Optional<NSString>
  - some : {
  "id" : "22",
  "title" : "livsycode",
  "info" : {
    "info1" : {
      "status" : "ready"
    },
    "info2" : {
      "time" : "22:11"
    }
  }
}

Nice!

Conclusion

Debugging plays a vital role in programming, and it’s always satisfying when it becomes a bit easier.