Accents conversion is wrong when adding text to dictionary

Question

I have an array of dictionnaries: [[String:String]]. Every dictionnary countain a string parameter (text) in french.

When I put this array in a dictionnary: [String:AnyObject], accents in the string text parameter are converted in ASCII.

For example é become \U00e9

Here's my code :

var args: [String:AnyObject] = [
        "action":"share",
        "id": NSNumber(longLong: id)
    ]
    var shareOn = [[String:String]]()
    if let sharers = User.currentUser?.sharers {
        for (index, object) in enumerate(sharers) {
            if object.enabled == true {
                var sharerContent: [String:String] = ["sharerId": object.sharerId, "cnxId": String(object.cnxId)]
                if object.shareAsImageEnable == true {
                    sharerContent["shareAsImage"] = "true"
                }
                if object.mustSpecifyShareText == true {
                    var text : String! = (title != nil) ? title : ""
                    if object.sharerId.lowercaseString.rangeOfString("twitter") != nil {
                        let maxLength = 140 - 27 // Twitter limit - max URL long
                        if text.length > maxLength {
                            let index: String.Index = advance(text.startIndex, maxLength-3)
                            text = text.substringToIndex(index) + "... http://ppo.az/..."
                        } else {
                            text = text + " http://ppo.az/..."
                        }
                    }
                    sharerContent["text"] = text
                }
                shareOn.append(sharerContent)
            }
        }
    }

    println(shareOn)

    args["shareOn"] = shareOn

    println(args)

And the results of println:

println(shareOn) => accent OK =>

[[sharerId: facebook, cnxId: 4230821, shareAsImage: true, text: Le kit de réparation de portable est toulousain]]

println(args) => accent NOT OK =>

[action: share, id: 4049850929, shareOn: ( { cnxId = 4150811; shareAsImage = true; sharerId = facebook; text = "Le kit de r\U00e9paration de portable est toulousain"; } )]

EDIT : My Router and my function makeRequest :

import UIKit
import Alamofire
import OAuthSwift

enum Router: URLRequestConvertible {

static let baseURLString: String! = Global.kClientAPIURL
static var oauthClient: OAuthSwiftClient!

case Login([String: AnyObject])
case LoginSocial([String: AnyObject])
case Profil([String: AnyObject])
case GetCompilation([String: AnyObject])
case GetSavedSearch([String: AnyObject])
case sharePost([String: AnyObject])


var URLRequest: NSURLRequest {
    let (method: Alamofire.Method, path: String, parameters : [String: AnyObject]?) = {
        switch self {
        case .Login(let params):
            return (.POST, "api/1/login", params)
        case .LoginSocial(let params):
            return (.POST, "api/1/login-with-social-account", params)
        case .Profil(let params):
            return (.GET, "api/1/profile", params)
        case .GetCompilation(let params):
            return (.GET, "api/1/compilation", params)
        case .GetSavedSearch(let params):
            return (.GET, "api/1/search", params)
        case .sharePost(let params):
            return (.POST, "api/1/post", params)
        }
    }()

    let URL = NSURL(string: Router.baseURLString)!
    let URLWithPath = URL.URLByAppendingPathComponent(path)

    let auth = OAuthSwiftClient.authorizationHeaderForMethod(method.rawValue,
        url: URLWithPath,
        parameters: parameters!,
        credential: Router.oauthClient.credential)
    let URLRequest = makeRequest(URLWithPath, method.rawValue, ["Authorization" : auth], parameters!, NSUTF8StringEncoding)

    return URLRequest
  }
}

func makeRequest(URL: NSURL, method: String, headers: [String : String], parameters: Dictionary<String, AnyObject>, dataEncoding : NSStringEncoding) -> NSMutableURLRequest {
var request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: URL)
request.HTTPMethod = method

for (key, value) in headers {
    request.setValue(value, forHTTPHeaderField: key)
}

let charset = CFStringConvertEncodingToIANACharSetName(CFStringConvertNSStringEncodingToEncoding(dataEncoding))

var nonOAuthParameters = parameters.filter { key, _ in !key.hasPrefix("oauth_") }

if nonOAuthParameters.count > 0 {
    if request.HTTPMethod == "GET" || request.HTTPMethod == "POST" {
        let queryString = nonOAuthParameters.urlEncodedQueryStringWithEncoding(dataEncoding)
        request.URL = URL.URLByAppendingQueryString(queryString)
        request.setValue("application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=\(charset)", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")
    }
    else {
        var error: NSError?
        if let jsonData: NSData = NSJSONSerialization.dataWithJSONObject(nonOAuthParameters, options: nil, error: &error)  {
            request.setValue("application/json; charset=\(charset)", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")
            request.HTTPBody = jsonData
        }
        else {
            println(error!.localizedDescription)
        }
    }
}
return request
}

Answer 1

The string \U00e9 is not an ascii character, but simply the Unicode format for the letter é. In other words, nothing is changed, but only printed in a different way.

When the value is printed as String, it is printed "correctly".

On the other hand, the library function that prints a value of type AnyObject try to be more generic possible, and render non-english characters with their Unicode code point.

Answer 2

Your dictionary and the text are OK, the "problem" comes from println.

Paste this in a Playground for demonstration:

var args = [String:AnyObject]()
var shareOn = [[String:String]]()
shareOn.append(["key":"clé"])
println(shareOn)
args["shareOn"] = shareOn
println(args)

args["shareOn"]

The output of println looks wrong but in the Playground you see that the actual content of the dictionary is right, the accented letter is still here.

println doesn't know how to treat accented characters if the object type is not String.

If you declare the String type for the values, then println works correctly:

var args = [String:[[String:String]]]()
var shareOn = [[String:String]]()
shareOn.append(["key":"clé"])
println(shareOn)
args["shareOn"] = shareOn
println(args)