How do I make a Multidimensional Array for large data storage in Obj-c?

Question

I am fairly new at object oriented programming (but am starting to pick up fairly quickly), and am working on an application for the iphone. I need to make a multidimensional array, (10,000 or more rows, 8 collums) ordered as such:3 collums should contain boolean values, one should contain an integer, two need to hold GPS coordinates (usually have a decimal, like 62.422342), one needs to hold a 30 character string. is there an easy way to create such an array, and if so, to define the array elements prior to user interation?

Answer 1

You might want to make each row an object, and keep an NSArray of those objects. Each "column" would be a property on the object. This would be a good choice if each row actually does represent an object.

Otherwise you could have an NSArray of NSArrays to represent the 2D array. Not a perfect solution, because it's possible to have rows/columns of different lengths, but it would do.

You could always roll your own, and make a kind of "Table" class that acts as a 2D NSArray and enforces correct row/column length.

Answer 2

You should maybe have a look at Core Data and store your data in a database. I'm currently reading Beginning iPhone 3 Development and it's got a chapter about Core Data. It doesn't go into very much detail, but is a good introduction and should be enough to get started.