I am trying to code a global lookup table of sorts.
I have game data that is stored in character/string format in a plist, but which needs to be in integer/id format when it is loaded.
For instance, in the level data file, a "p" means player. In the game code a player is represented as the integer 1. This let's me do some bitwise operations, etc. I am simplifying greatly here, but trying to get the point across. Also, there is a conversion to coordinates for the sprite on a sprite sheet.
Right now this string-integer, integer-string, integer-coordinate, etc. conversion is taking place in several places in code using a case statement. This stinks, of course, and I would rather do it with a dictionary lookup.
I created a class called levelInfo, and want to define the dictionary for this conversion, and then class methods to call when I need to do a conversion, or otherwise deal with level data.
NSString *levelObjects = @"empty,player,object,thing,doohickey";
int levelIDs[] = [0,1,2,4,8];
// etc etc
@implementation LevelInfo
+(int) crateIDfromChar: (char) crateChar {
int idx = [[crateTypes componentsSeparatedByString:@","] indexOfObject: crateChar];
return levelIDs[idx];
}
+(NSString *) crateStringFromID: (int) crateID {
return [[crateTypes componentsSeparatedByString:@","] objectAtIndex: crateID];
}
@end
Is there a better way to do this? It feels wrong to basically build these temporary arrays, or dictionaries, or whatever for each call to do this translation. And I don't know of a way to declare a constant NSArray or NSDictionary.
Please, tell me a better way....
