json - Using codable with value that is sometimes an Int and other times a String

Question

I have an API that will sometimes return a specific key value (in this case id) in the JSON as an Int and other times it will return that same key value as a String. How do I use codable to parse that JSON?

struct GeneralProduct: Codable {
    var price: Double!
    var id: String?
    var name: String!

    private enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
        case price = "p"
        case id = "i"
        case name = "n"
    }

    init(price: Double? = nil, id: String? = nil, name: String? = nil) {
        self.price = price
        self.id = id
        self.name = name
    }
}

I keep getting this error message: Expected to decode String but found a number instead. The reason that it returns a number is because the id field is empty and when the id field is empty it defaults to returning 0 as an ID which codable identifies as a number. I can basically ignore the ID key but codable does not give me the option to ignore it to my knowledge. What would be the best way to handle this?

Here is the JSON. It is super simple

Working

{
  "p":2.12,
  "i":"3k3mkfnk3",
  "n":"Blue Shirt"
}

Error - because there is no id in the system, it returns 0 as a default which codable obviously sees as a number opposed to string.

{
  "p":2.19,
  "i":0,
  "n":"Black Shirt"
}

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65878353/parse-dynamic-types-from-server-in-swift

Answer 1

struct GeneralProduct: Codable {
    var price: Double?
    var id: String?
    var name: String?
    private enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
        case price = "p", id = "i", name = "n"
    }
    init(price: Double? = nil, id: String? = nil, name: String? = nil) {
        self.price = price
        self.id = id
        self.name = name
    }
    init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
        let container = try decoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
        price = try container.decode(Double.self, forKey: .price)
        name = try container.decode(String.self, forKey: .name)
        do {
            id = try String(container.decode(Int.self, forKey: .id))
        } catch DecodingError.typeMismatch {
            id = try container.decode(String.self, forKey: .id)
        }
    }
}

---

let json1 = """
{
"p":2.12,
"i":"3k3mkfnk3",
"n":"Blue Shirt"
}
"""

let json2 = """
{
"p":2.12,
"i":0,
"n":"Blue Shirt"
}
"""

---

do {
    let product = try JSONDecoder().decode(GeneralProduct.self, from: Data(json2.utf8))
    print(product.price ?? "nil")
    print(product.id ?? "nil")
    print(product.name ?? "nil")
} catch {
    print(error)
}

---

edit/update:

You can also simply assign nil to your id when your api returns 0:

do {
    let value = try container.decode(Int.self, forKey: .id)
    id = value == 0 ? nil : String(value)
} catch DecodingError.typeMismatch {
    id = try container.decode(String.self, forKey: .id)
}