XML to Objective C

XML to Objective-C – Model classes for iOS and macOS

The XML to Objective-C converter produces a header (.h) and implementation (.m) for every element type in your XML sample. Each class is an NSObject subclass with typed @property declarations, nullability annotations inside NS_ASSUME_NONNULL blocks, and two methods: +fromDictionary: and -toDictionary.

How XML maps to types

XML has no native types, so the converter reads every element and attribute value and infers one: whole numbers become integers, decimals become floating-point numbers, true/false become booleans, and everything else stays a string. Attributes are kept apart from child elements (they appear as @name keys internally), an element that has both attributes and text gets a dedicated text field, and repeated sibling elements such as several item nodes become a list. Namespace prefixes are stripped from names so ns:customer and customer produce the same type.

From XML to objects

Objective-C apps usually turn XML into an NSDictionary first — with a small NSXMLParser delegate, XMLDictionary, or a similar helper that stores attributes under @name keys and text under #text. The generated fromDictionary: reads exactly those keys, checks types with isKindOfClass:, builds nested objects, and turns repeated elements into NSArray instances of the right class. Numbers and booleans become NSInteger, double and BOOL when they are always present, and NSNumber * when they are optional.

Naming

Property names are camelCase. Names that clash with NSObject methods are renamed — id becomes identifier and description becomes descriptionText — while the dictionary keys keep the original XML names. Add a class prefix such as ABC to follow Apple's naming guidelines and avoid collisions.

Use cases

Maintaining an older iOS app that consumes an XML or SOAP backend, parsing plist-like configuration, or bridging XML data into Swift code through an Objective-C model layer.

Tips

Split the output into separate .h and .m files at the marked comments, and make sure your XML-to-dictionary helper always returns arrays for repeated elements.

Related tools

Generate the same models from JSON with JSON to Objective C or inspect your input in the XML Viewer.