This will read property lists in XML (or any of the other property list formats:)NSData *data = // get NSData from somewhere, like NSFileManager if (data) { myRootObject = [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListFromData: data mutabilityOption: NSPropertyListMutableContainers format: nil errorDescription: nil]; }For the mutability options of the resulting object, you can also useNSPropertyListImmutable
andNSPropertyListMutableContainersAndLeaves