Generate JSON string from NSDictionary in iOS

Here are categories for NSArray and NSDictionary to make this super-easy. I've added an option for pretty-print (newlines and tabs to make easier to read).

@interface NSDictionary (BVJSONString)
-(NSString*) bv_jsonStringWithPrettyPrint:(BOOL) prettyPrint;
@end

.

@implementation NSDictionary (BVJSONString)

  -(NSString*) bv_jsonStringWithPrettyPrint:(BOOL) prettyPrint {
     NSError *error;
     NSData *jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:self
                                                   options:(NSJSONWritingOptions)    (prettyPrint ? NSJSONWritingPrettyPrinted : 0)
                                                     error:&error];

     if (! jsonData) {
        NSLog(@"%s: error: %@", __func__, error.localizedDescription);
        return @"{}";
     } else {
        return [[NSString alloc] initWithData:jsonData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
     } 
 }
@end

.

@interface NSArray (BVJSONString)
- (NSString *)bv_jsonStringWithPrettyPrint:(BOOL)prettyPrint;
@end

.

@implementation NSArray (BVJSONString)
-(NSString*) bv_jsonStringWithPrettyPrint:(BOOL) prettyPrint {
    NSError *error;
    NSData *jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:self
                                                       options:(NSJSONWritingOptions) (prettyPrint ? NSJSONWritingPrettyPrinted : 0)
                                                         error:&error];

    if (! jsonData) {
        NSLog(@"%s: error: %@", __func__, error.localizedDescription);
        return @"[]";
    } else {
        return [[NSString alloc] initWithData:jsonData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
    }
}
@end

You can also do this on-the-fly by entering the following into the debugger

po [[NSString alloc] initWithData:[NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:yourDictionary options:1 error:nil] encoding:4];

Now no need third party classes ios 5 introduced Nsjsonserialization

NSString *urlString=@"Your url";
NSString *urlUTF8 = [urlString stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSURL *url=[[NSURL alloc]initWithString:urlUTF8];
NSURLRequest *request=[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];

NSURLResponse *response;

NSData *GETReply = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request returningResponse:&response error:nil];

NSError *myError = nil;

NSDictionary *res = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:GETReply options:NSJSONReadingMutableLeaves|| NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&myError];

Nslog(@"%@",res);

this code can useful for getting jsondata.

Here is the Swift 4 version

extension NSDictionary{

func toString() throws -> String? {
    do {
        let data = try JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: self, options: .prettyPrinted)
        return String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)
    }
    catch (let error){
        throw error
    }
}

}

Usage Example

do{
    let jsonString = try dic.toString()
    }
    catch( let error){
        print(error.localizedDescription)
    }

Or if you are sure it is valid dictionary then you can use

let jsonString = try? dic.toString()

This will work in swift4 and swift5.

let dataDict = "the dictionary you want to convert in jsonString" 

let jsonData = try! JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: dataDict, options: JSONSerialization.WritingOptions.prettyPrinted)

let jsonString = NSString(data: jsonData, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8.rawValue)! as String

print(jsonString)