How to store custom objects in NSUserDefaults

On your Player class, implement the following two methods (substituting calls to encodeObject with something relevant to your own object):

- (void)encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)encoder {
    //Encode properties, other class variables, etc
    [encoder encodeObject:self.question forKey:@"question"];
    [encoder encodeObject:self.categoryName forKey:@"category"];
    [encoder encodeObject:self.subCategoryName forKey:@"subcategory"];
}

- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)decoder {
    if((self = [super init])) {
        //decode properties, other class vars
        self.question = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:@"question"];
        self.categoryName = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:@"category"];
        self.subCategoryName = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:@"subcategory"];
    }
    return self;
}

Reading and writing from NSUserDefaults:

- (void)saveCustomObject:(MyObject *)object key:(NSString *)key {
    NSData *encodedObject = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:object];
    NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
    [defaults setObject:encodedObject forKey:key];
    [defaults synchronize];

}

- (MyObject *)loadCustomObjectWithKey:(NSString *)key {
    NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
    NSData *encodedObject = [defaults objectForKey:key];
    MyObject *object = [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:encodedObject];
    return object;
}

Code shamelessly borrowed from: saving class in nsuserdefaults

Swift 4 introduced the Codable protocol which does all the magic for these kinds of tasks. Just conform your custom struct/class to it:

struct Player: Codable {
  let name: String
  let life: Double
}

And for storing in the Defaults you can use the PropertyListEncoder/Decoder:

let player = Player(name: "Jim", life: 3.14)
UserDefaults.standard.set(try! PropertyListEncoder().encode(player), forKey: kPlayerDefaultsKey)

let storedObject: Data = UserDefaults.standard.object(forKey: kPlayerDefaultsKey) as! Data
let storedPlayer: Player = try! PropertyListDecoder().decode(Player.self, from: storedObject)

It will work like that for arrays and other container classes of such objects too:

try! PropertyListDecoder().decode([Player].self, from: storedArray)

I create a library RMMapper (https://github.com/roomorama/RMMapper) to help save custom object into NSUserDefaults easier and more convenient, because implementing encodeWithCoder and initWithCoder is super boring!

To mark a class as archivable, just use: #import "NSObject+RMArchivable.h"

To save a custom object into NSUserDefaults:

#import "NSUserDefaults+RMSaveCustomObject.h"
NSUserDefaults* defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
[defaults rm_setCustomObject:user forKey:@"SAVED_DATA"];

To get custom obj from NSUserDefaults:

user = [defaults rm_customObjectForKey:@"SAVED_DATA"]; 

If anybody is looking for a swift version:

1) Create a custom class for your data

class customData: NSObject, NSCoding {
let name : String
let url : String
let desc : String

init(tuple : (String,String,String)){
    self.name = tuple.0
    self.url = tuple.1
    self.desc = tuple.2
}
func getName() -> String {
    return name
}
func getURL() -> String{
    return url
}
func getDescription() -> String {
    return desc
}
func getTuple() -> (String,String,String) {
    return (self.name,self.url,self.desc)
}

required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    self.name = aDecoder.decodeObjectForKey("name") as! String
    self.url = aDecoder.decodeObjectForKey("url") as! String
    self.desc = aDecoder.decodeObjectForKey("desc") as! String
}

func encodeWithCoder(aCoder: NSCoder) {
    aCoder.encodeObject(self.name, forKey: "name")
    aCoder.encodeObject(self.url, forKey: "url")
    aCoder.encodeObject(self.desc, forKey: "desc")
} 
}

2) To save data use following function:

func saveData()
    {
        let data  = NSKeyedArchiver.archivedDataWithRootObject(custom)
        let defaults = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults()
        defaults.setObject(data, forKey:"customArray" )
    }

3) To retrieve:

if let data = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().objectForKey("customArray") as? NSData
        {
             custom = NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObjectWithData(data) as! [customData]
        }

Note: Here I am saving and retrieving an array of the custom class objects.

Taking @chrissr's answer and running with it, this code can be implemented into a nice category on NSUserDefaults to save and retrieve custom objects:

@interface NSUserDefaults (NSUserDefaultsExtensions)

- (void)saveCustomObject:(id<NSCoding>)object
                     key:(NSString *)key;
- (id<NSCoding>)loadCustomObjectWithKey:(NSString *)key;

@end


@implementation NSUserDefaults (NSUserDefaultsExtensions)


- (void)saveCustomObject:(id<NSCoding>)object
                     key:(NSString *)key {
    NSData *encodedObject = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:object];
    [self setObject:encodedObject forKey:key];
    [self synchronize];

}

- (id<NSCoding>)loadCustomObjectWithKey:(NSString *)key {
    NSData *encodedObject = [self objectForKey:key];
    id<NSCoding> object = [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:encodedObject];
    return object;
}

@end

Usage:

[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] saveCustomObject:myObject key:@"myKey"];

Swift 3

class MyObject: NSObject, NSCoding  {
    let name : String
    let url : String
    let desc : String

    init(tuple : (String,String,String)){
        self.name = tuple.0
        self.url = tuple.1
        self.desc = tuple.2
    }
    func getName() -> String {
        return name
    }
    func getURL() -> String{
        return url
    }
    func getDescription() -> String {
        return desc
    }
    func getTuple() -> (String, String, String) {
        return (self.name,self.url,self.desc)
    }

    required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        self.name = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "name") as? String ?? ""
        self.url = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "url") as? String ?? ""
        self.desc = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "desc") as? String ?? ""
    }

    func encode(with aCoder: NSCoder) {
        aCoder.encode(self.name, forKey: "name")
        aCoder.encode(self.url, forKey: "url")
        aCoder.encode(self.desc, forKey: "desc")
    }
    }

to store and retrieve:

func save() {
            let data  = NSKeyedArchiver.archivedData(withRootObject: object)
            UserDefaults.standard.set(data, forKey:"customData" )
        }
        func get() -> MyObject? {
            guard let data = UserDefaults.standard.object(forKey: "customData") as? Data else { return nil }
            return NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObject(with: data) as? MyObject
        }

Synchronize the data/object that you have saved into NSUserDefaults

-(void)saveCustomObject:(Player *)object
{ 
    NSUserDefaults *prefs = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
    NSData *myEncodedObject = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:object];
    [prefs setObject:myEncodedObject forKey:@"testing"];
    [prefs synchronize];
}

Hope this will help you. Thanks