iOS Swift: Downcasting AnyObject -

i know number of downcasting cocoa swift questions have been asked , there bugs, have tried lot of methods found here , cannot them work, hoping can lend hand.

i new programming. making database program ios in swift.

i have person class:

class person : nsobject {     var firstname : string     var lastname : string      init (firstname : string, lastname : string) {         self.firstname = firstname         self.lastname = lastname     }      func encodewithcoder(acoder: nscoder!) {         acoder.encodeobject(firstname, forkey:"firstname")         acoder.encodeobject(lastname, forkey:"lastname") }      init (coder adecoder: nscoder!) {         self.firstname = adecoder.decodeobjectforkey("firstname") string         self.lastname = adecoder.decodeobjectforkey("lasname") string     }  } 

i declare array of class @ top of view controller:

    var peoplearray = [person]() 

i fill array declaring sample users , append array:

    var nateb = person(firstname: "nate", lastname: "birkholz")     var natec = person(firstname: "nate", lastname: "carson")     var nated = person(firstname: "nate", lastname: "donnelly")     self.peoplearray.append(nateb)     self.peoplearray.append(natec)     self.peoplearray.append(nated) 

i try save data plist file:

let filemanager = (nsfilemanager.defaultmanager())         let directorys : [string]? = nssearchpathfordirectoriesindomains(nssearchpathdirectory.documentdirectory,nssearchpathdomainmask.alldomainsmask, true) as? [string]          println("value of directorys \(directorys)")          if (directorys != nil){             let directories:[string] = directorys!;             let pathtofile = directories[0]; //documents directory              let plistfile = "peoplearray.plist"             let plistpath = pathtofile.stringbyappendingpathcomponent(plistfile);              if !filemanager.fileexistsatpath(plistpath){  //writing plist file                  self.createinitialpeople()                  println("declaring cocoaarray")                 var cocoaarray : nsarray = [nskeyedarchiver.archiveddatawithrootobject(peoplearray)]                 println("writing path")                 cocoaarray.writetofile(plistpath, atomically: true)                 let tellme = cocoaarray.writetofile(plistpath, atomically: true)                 println("return of write \(tellme)")             }  

a plist file inscrutable data created.

i close app , start again, try load file:

         else {                         println("\n\nplist file found @ \(plistpath)")              let cocoaarray = nsmutablearray.arraywithcontentsoffile(plistpath)             peoplearray = cocoaarray array         }     } 

and fail because cannot downcast "anyobject not identical 'person'. have tried downcasting in several ways have found listed here on stackoverflow , cannot successfully. frustrating.

update final code:

func createpeopleplist() {      let filemanager = (nsfilemanager.defaultmanager())     let directorys : [string]? = nssearchpathfordirectoriesindomains(nssearchpathdirectory.documentdirectory,nssearchpathdomainmask.alldomainsmask, true) as? [string]      println("value of directorys \(directorys)")      if (directorys != nil){         let directories:[string] = directorys!;         let pathtofile = directories[0]; //documents directory          let plistfile = "peoplearray.plist"         plistpath = pathtofile.stringbyappendingpathcomponent(plistfile);          if !filemanager.fileexistsatpath(plistpath){  //writing plist file              self.createinitialpeople()              println("saving plist")              [nskeyedarchiver.archiverootobject(peoplearray, tofile: plistpath)]              println("writing path \(plistpath)")           } else {            //reading plist file             println("\n\nplist file found @ \(plistpath)")              peoplearray = nskeyedunarchiver.unarchiveobjectwithfile(plistpath) [person]            }     }   } 

your array still contains nsdata when read in (the data created when archiving in first place). however, question why putting data in array before writing disk. peoplearray can root object; there no need array wrapping it. can use archiverootobject(_:tofile:) , unarchiveobjectwithfile(_:).

i recommend reading archives , serializations programming guide , property list programming guide, , nskeyedarchiver docs, further information.