Objective-C

Objective-C
Notes for Professionals
®

Notes for Professionals

100+ pages
of professional hints and tricks

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GoalKicker.com This is an unocial free book created for educational purposes and is
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Contents
About ................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: Getting started with Objective-C Language ............................................................................ 2
Section 1.1: Hello World ................................................................................................................................................. 2
Chapter 2: Basic Data Types .................................................................................................................................. 4
Section 2.1: SEL ............................................................................................................................................................... 4
Section 2.2: BOOL .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Section 2.3: id ................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Section 2.4: IMP (implementation pointer) ................................................................................................................. 5
Section 2.5: NSInteger and NSUInteger ...................................................................................................................... 6
Chapter 3: Enums .......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Section 3.1: typedef enum declaration in Objective-C ............................................................................................... 8
Section 3.2: Converting C++ std::vector<Enum> to an Objective-C Array ............................................................... 8
Section 3.3: Defining an enum ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Chapter 4: Structs ...................................................................................................................................................... 10
Section 4.1: Defining a Structure and Accessing Structure Members .................................................................... 10
Section 4.2: CGPoint .................................................................................................................................................... 10
Chapter 5: Classes and Objects .......................................................................................................................... 12
Section 5.1: Dierence between allocation and initialization .................................................................................. 12
Section 5.2: Creating classes with initialization values ............................................................................................ 12
Section 5.3: Specifying Generics ................................................................................................................................ 13
Section 5.4: Singleton Class ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Section 5.5: The "instancetype" return type ............................................................................................................. 14
Chapter 6: Inheritance ............................................................................................................................................. 15
Section 6.1: Car is inherited from Vehicle .................................................................................................................. 15
Chapter 7: Methods ................................................................................................................................................... 17
Section 7.1: Class methods .......................................................................................................................................... 17
Section 7.2: Pass by value parameter passing ........................................................................................................ 17
Section 7.3: Pass by reference parameter passing ................................................................................................. 17
Section 7.4: Method parameters ................................................................................................................................ 18
Section 7.5: Create a basic method ........................................................................................................................... 18
Section 7.6: Return values .......................................................................................................................................... 19
Section 7.7: Calling methods ...................................................................................................................................... 19
Section 7.8: Instance methods ................................................................................................................................... 20
Chapter 8: Properties ............................................................................................................................................... 21
Section 8.1: Custom getters and setters .................................................................................................................... 21
Section 8.2: Properties that cause updates .............................................................................................................. 22
Section 8.3: What are properties? ............................................................................................................................. 23
Chapter 9: Random Integer .................................................................................................................................. 26
Section 9.1: Basic Random Integer ............................................................................................................................ 26
Section 9.2: Random Integer within a Range ........................................................................................................... 26
Chapter 10: BOOL / bool / Boolean / NSCFBoolean ................................................................................ 27
Section 10.1: BOOL/Boolean/bool/NSCFBoolean .................................................................................................... 27
Section 10.2: BOOL VS Boolean ................................................................................................................................. 27
Chapter 11: Continue and Break! ......................................................................................................................... 28
Section 11.1: Continue and Break Statement ............................................................................................................. 28
Chapter 12: Key Value Coding / Key Value Observing ............................................................................ 29
Section 12.1: Most Common Real Life Key Value Coding Example ........................................................................ 29
Section 12.2: Querying KVC Data .............................................................................................................................. 29
Section 12.3: Collection Operators ............................................................................................................................. 30
Section 12.4: Key Value Observing ............................................................................................................................ 32
Chapter 13: NSString ................................................................................................................................................. 35
Section 13.1: Encoding and Decoding ........................................................................................................................ 35
Section 13.2: String Length .......................................................................................................................................... 35
Section 13.3: Comparing Strings ................................................................................................................................. 35
Section 13.4: Splitting ................................................................................................................................................... 36
Section 13.5: Searching for a Substring ..................................................................................................................... 37
Section 13.6: Creation .................................................................................................................................................. 37
Section 13.7: Changing Case ....................................................................................................................................... 38
Section 13.8: Removing Leading and Trailing Whitespace ..................................................................................... 38
Section 13.9: Joining an Array of Strings .................................................................................................................. 38
Section 13.10: Formatting ............................................................................................................................................ 39
Section 13.11: Working with C Strings ......................................................................................................................... 39
Section 13.12: Reversing a NSString Objective-C ...................................................................................................... 39
Chapter 14: NSArray ................................................................................................................................................. 41
Section 14.1: Creating Arrays ...................................................................................................................................... 41
Section 14.2: Accessing elements ............................................................................................................................... 41
Section 14.3: Using Generics ....................................................................................................................................... 41
Section 14.4: Reverse an Array .................................................................................................................................. 42
Section 14.5: Converting between Sets and Arrays ................................................................................................. 42
Section 14.6: Converting NSArray to NSMutableArray to allow modification ....................................................... 42
Section 14.7: Looping through .................................................................................................................................... 42
Section 14.8: Enumerating using blocks .................................................................................................................... 43
Section 14.9: Comparing arrays ................................................................................................................................. 43
Section 14.10: Filtering Arrays With Predicates ......................................................................................................... 43
Section 14.11: Sorting array with custom objects ...................................................................................................... 44
Section 14.12: Sorting Arrays ...................................................................................................................................... 44
Section 14.13: Filter NSArray and NSMutableArray .................................................................................................. 45
Section 14.14: Add objects to NSArray ....................................................................................................................... 45
Section 14.15: Finding out the Number of Elements in an Array ............................................................................. 45
Section 14.16: Creating NSArray instances ................................................................................................................ 45
Chapter 15: NSMutableArray ................................................................................................................................ 46
Section 15.1: Sorting Arrays ......................................................................................................................................... 46
Section 15.2: Creating an NSMutableArray ............................................................................................................... 46
Section 15.3: Adding elements .................................................................................................................................... 46
Section 15.4: Insert Elements ...................................................................................................................................... 46
Section 15.5: Deleting Elements .................................................................................................................................. 46
Section 15.6: Move object to another index .............................................................................................................. 47
Section 15.7: Filtering Array content with Predicate ................................................................................................ 47
Chapter 16: NSDictionary ........................................................................................................................................ 48
Section 16.1: Create ...................................................................................................................................................... 48
Section 16.2: Fast Enumeration .................................................................................................................................. 48
Section 16.3: Creating using literals ........................................................................................................................... 48
Section 16.4: Creating using dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys: ................................................................................ 48
Section 16.5: NSDictionary to NSArray ...................................................................................................................... 49
Section 16.6: NSDictionary to NSData ....................................................................................................................... 49
 Section 16.7: NSDictionary to JSON ........................................................................................................................... 49
Section 16.8: Creating using plists .............................................................................................................................. 49
Section 16.9: Setting a Value in NSDictionary ........................................................................................................... 49
Section 16.10: Getting a Value from NSDictionary ................................................................................................... 50
Section 16.11: Check if NSDictionary already has a key or not ............................................................................... 50
Section 16.12: Block Based Enumeration ................................................................................................................... 50
Chapter 17: NSMutableDictionary ...................................................................................................................... 52
Section 17.1: NSMutableDictionary Example ............................................................................................................. 52
Section 17.2: Removing Entries From a Mutable Dictionary ................................................................................... 53
Chapter 18: NSDate .................................................................................................................................................... 55
Section 18.1: Convert NSDate that is composed from hour and minute (only) to a full NSDate ........................ 55
Section 18.2: Converting NSDate to NSString ........................................................................................................... 55
Section 18.3: Creating an NSDate .............................................................................................................................. 56
Section 18.4: Date Comparison .................................................................................................................................. 56
Chapter 19: NSURL ..................................................................................................................................................... 58
Section 19.1: Create ...................................................................................................................................................... 58
Section 19.2: Compare NSURL ................................................................................................................................... 58
Section 19.3: Modifying and Converting a File URL with removing and appending path .................................... 58
Chapter 20: NSUrl send a post request .......................................................................................................... 60
Section 20.1: Simple POST request ............................................................................................................................ 60
Section 20.2: Simple Post Request With Timeout .................................................................................................... 60
Chapter 21: NSData .................................................................................................................................................... 61
Section 21.1: Create ...................................................................................................................................................... 61
Section 21.2: NSData and Hexadecimal String ......................................................................................................... 61
Section 21.3: Get NSData length ................................................................................................................................ 62
Section 21.4: Encoding and decoding a string using NSData Base64 ................................................................... 62
Chapter 22: NSPredicate ......................................................................................................................................... 63
Section 22.1: Filter By Name ....................................................................................................................................... 63
Section 22.2: Find movies except given ids .............................................................................................................. 64
Section 22.3: Find all the objects which is of type movie ........................................................................................ 64
Section 22.4: Find Distinct object ids of array .......................................................................................................... 64
Section 22.5: Find movies with specific ids ............................................................................................................... 64
Section 22.6: Case Insensitive comparison with exact title match ......................................................................... 64
Section 22.7: Case sensitive with exact title match .................................................................................................. 64
Section 22.8: Case Insensitive comparison with matching subset ......................................................................... 65
Chapter 23: NSRegularExpression ..................................................................................................................... 66
Section 23.1: Check whether a string matches a pattern ........................................................................................ 66
Section 23.2: Find all the numbers in a string .......................................................................................................... 66
Chapter 24: NSJSONSerialization ...................................................................................................................... 67
Section 24.1: JSON Parsing using NSJSONSerialization Objective-C ..................................................................... 67
Chapter 25: NSCalendar .......................................................................................................................................... 69
Section 25.1: System Locale Information .................................................................................................................. 69
Section 25.2: Initializing a Calendar ........................................................................................................................... 69
Section 25.3: Calendrical Calculations ...................................................................................................................... 69
Chapter 26: NSAttributedString .......................................................................................................................... 71
Section 26.1: Using Enumerating over Attributes in a String and underline part of string .................................. 71
Section 26.2: Creating a string that has custom kerning (letter spacing) editshare ........................................... 71
Section 26.3: Create a string with text struck through ............................................................................................ 71
Section 26.4: How you create a tri-color attributed string ..................................................................................... 72
Chapter 27: NSTimer ................................................................................................................................................. 73
Section 27.1: Storing information in the Timer .......................................................................................................... 73
Section 27.2: Creating a Timer ................................................................................................................................... 73
Section 27.3: Invalidating a timer ............................................................................................................................... 73
Section 27.4: Manually firing a timer ......................................................................................................................... 74
Chapter 28: NSObject ............................................................................................................................................... 75
Section 28.1: NSObject ................................................................................................................................................ 75
Chapter 29: NSSortDescriptor ............................................................................................................................. 76
Section 29.1: Sorted by combinations of NSSortDescriptor .................................................................................... 76
Chapter 30: NSTextAttachment .......................................................................................................................... 77
Section 30.1: NSTextAttachment Example ................................................................................................................ 77
Chapter 31: NSCache ................................................................................................................................................. 78
Section 31.1: NSCache .................................................................................................................................................. 78
Chapter 32: NSUserDefaults ................................................................................................................................. 79
Section 32.1: Simple example ..................................................................................................................................... 79
Section 32.2: Clear NSUserDefaults .......................................................................................................................... 79
Chapter 33: Subscripting ......................................................................................................................................... 80
Section 33.1: Subscripts with NSArray ....................................................................................................................... 80
Section 33.2: Custom Subscripting ............................................................................................................................ 80
Section 33.3: Subscripts with NSDictionary ............................................................................................................... 80
Chapter 34: Low-level Runtime Environment .............................................................................................. 82
Section 34.1: Augmenting methods using Method Swizzling .................................................................................. 82
Section 34.2: Attach object to another existing object (association) .................................................................... 83
Section 34.3: Calling methods directly ...................................................................................................................... 83
Chapter 35: Fast Enumeration ............................................................................................................................. 85
Section 35.1: Fast enumeration of an NSArray with index ...................................................................................... 85
Section 35.2: Fast enumeration of an NSArray ........................................................................................................ 85
Chapter 36: Categories ............................................................................................................................................ 86
Section 36.1: Conforming to protocol ........................................................................................................................ 86
Section 36.2: Simple Category ................................................................................................................................... 86
Section 36.3: Declaring a class method .................................................................................................................... 86
Section 36.4: Adding a property with a category .................................................................................................... 87
Section 36.5: Create a Category on XCode .............................................................................................................. 87
Chapter 37: Protocols ............................................................................................................................................... 91
Section 37.1: Optional and required methods ........................................................................................................... 91
Section 37.2: Checking existence of optional method implementations ............................................................... 91
Section 37.3: Forward Declarations ........................................................................................................................... 91
Section 37.4: Conforming to Protocols ...................................................................................................................... 92
Section 37.5: Basic Protocol Definition ...................................................................................................................... 92
Section 37.6: Check conforms Protocol .................................................................................................................... 92
Chapter 38: Protocols and Delegates .............................................................................................................. 93
Section 38.1: Implementation of Protocols and Delegation mechanism ............................................................... 93
Chapter 39: Blocks ...................................................................................................................................................... 94
Section 39.1: Block Typedefs ...................................................................................................................................... 94
Section 39.2: Blocks as Properties ............................................................................................................................. 94
Section 39.3: Blocks as local variables ...................................................................................................................... 95
Section 39.4: Blocks as Method Parameters ............................................................................................................ 95
Section 39.5: Defining and Assigning ........................................................................................................................ 95
Chapter 40: XML parsing ........................................................................................................................................ 96
Section 40.1: XML Parsing ........................................................................................................................................... 96
Chapter 41: Declare class method and instance method ...................................................................... 98
Section 41.1: How to declare class method and instance method ......................................................................... 98
Chapter 42: Predefined Macros .......................................................................................................................... 99
Section 42.1: Predefined Macros ................................................................................................................................ 99
Chapter 43: Grand Central Dispatch .............................................................................................................. 100
Section 43.1: What is Grand central dispatch ......................................................................................................... 100
Chapter 44: Format-Specifiers ......................................................................................................................... 101
Section 44.1: Integer Example - %i ........................................................................................................................... 101
Chapter 45: Logging ............................................................................................................................................... 102
Section 45.1: Logging ................................................................................................................................................ 102
Section 45.2: NSLog Output Format ....................................................................................................................... 102
Section 45.3: Removing Log Statements from Release Builds ............................................................................ 102
Section 45.4: Logging Variable Values ................................................................................................................... 102
Section 45.5: Empty message is not printed .......................................................................................................... 103
Section 45.6: Using __FUNCTION __ ..................................................................................................................... 103
Section 45.7: NSLog vs printf ................................................................................................................................... 103
Section 45.8: Logging NSLog meta data ................................................................................................................ 104
Section 45.9: NSLog and BOOL type ....................................................................................................................... 104
Section 45.10: Logging by Appending to a File ...................................................................................................... 105
Chapter 46: Error Handling ................................................................................................................................. 106
Section 46.1: Error & Exception handling with try catch block .............................................................................. 106
Section 46.2: Asserting .............................................................................................................................................. 106
Chapter 47: Modern Objective-C ...................................................................................................................... 108
Section 47.1: Literals .................................................................................................................................................. 108
Section 47.2: Container subscripting ....................................................................................................................... 108
Chapter 48: Singletons .......................................................................................................................................... 110
Section 48.1: Using Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) ................................................................................................ 110
Section 48.2: Creating Singleton and also preventing it from having multiple instance using alloc/init, new
............................................................................................................................................................................. 110
Section 48.3: Creating Singleton class and also preventing it from having multiple instances using
alloc/init ............................................................................................................................................................. 111
Chapter 49: Multi-Threading .............................................................................................................................. 112
Section 49.1: Creating a simple thread .................................................................................................................... 112
Section 49.2: Create more complex thread ............................................................................................................ 112
Section 49.3: Thread-local storage ......................................................................................................................... 113
Chapter 50: Unit testing using Xcode ............................................................................................................ 114
Section 50.1: Note: ..................................................................................................................................................... 114
Section 50.2: Testing a block of code or some method: ....................................................................................... 114
Section 50.3: Testing asynchronous block of code: .............................................................................................. 114
Section 50.4: Measuring Performance of a block of code: ................................................................................... 115
Section 50.5: Running Test Suits: ............................................................................................................................. 115
Chapter 51: Memory Management .................................................................................................................. 116
Section 51.1: Memory management rules when using manual reference counting ........................................... 116
Section 51.2: Automatic Reference Counting ......................................................................................................... 117
Section 51.3: Strong and weak references .............................................................................................................. 118
Section 51.4: Manual Memory Management .......................................................................................................... 118
Credits ............................................................................................................................................................................ 120
You may also like ...................................................................................................................................................... 122
About

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GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 1

Chapter 1: Getting started with Objective-C
Language
Version Release Date
1.0 1983-01-01
2.0 2007-10-27
Modern 2014-03-10

Section 1.1: Hello World

This program will output "Hello World!"

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {

NSLog(@"Hello World!");
}

#import is a pre-processor directive, which indicates we want to import or include the information from that file into
the program. In this case, the compiler will copy the contents of Foundation.h in the Foundation framework to the
top of the file. The main difference between #import and #include is that #import is "smart" enough to not
reprocess files that have already been included in other #includes.

The C Language documentation explains the main function.

The NSLog() function will print the string provided to the console, along with some debugging information. In this
case, we use an Objective-C string literal: @"Hello World!". In C, you would write this as "Hello World!", however,
Apple's Foundation Framework adds the NSString class which provides a lot of useful functionality, and is used by
NSLog. The simplest way to create an instance of NSString is like this: @">string content here".

Technically, NSLog() is part of Apple's Foundation Framework and is not actually part of the Objective-C
language. However, the Foundation Framework is ubiquitous throughout Objective-C programming. Since
the Foundation Framework is not open-source and cannot be used outside of Apple development, there
are open-source alternatives to the framework which are associated with OPENStep and GNUStep.

Compiling the program

Assuming we want to compile our Hello World program, which consist of a single hello.m file, the command to
compile the executable is:

clang -framework Foundation hello.m -o hello

Then you can run it:

./hello

This will output:

Hello World!

The options are:

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 2

 -framework: Specifies a framework to use to compile the program. Since this program uses Foundation, we
include the Foundation framework.

-o: This option indicate to which file we'd like to output our program. In our case hello. If not specified, the
default value is a.out.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 3

Chapter 2: Basic Data Types
Section 2.1: SEL
Selectors are used as method identifiers in Objective-C.

In the example below, there are two selectors. new and setName:

Person* customer = [Person new];

[customer setName:@"John Doe"];

Each pair of brackets corresponds to a message send. On the first line we send a message containing the new
selector to the Person class and on the second line we send a message containing the setName: selector and a
string. The receiver of these messages uses the selector to look up the correct action to perform.

Most of the time, message passing using the bracket syntax is sufficient, but occasionally you need to work with the
selector itself. In these cases, the SEL type can be used to hold a reference to the selector.

If the selector is available at compile time, you can use @selector() to get a reference to it.

SEL s = @selector(setName:);

And if you need to find the selector at runtime, use NSSelectorFromString.

SEL s NSSelectorFromString(@"setName:");

When using NSSelectorFromString, make sure to wrap the selector name in a NSString.

It is commonly used to check if a delegate implements an optional method.

if ([self.myDelegate respondsToSelector:@selector(doSomething)]) {
[self.myDelegate doSomething];
}

Section 2.2: BOOL

The BOOL type is used for boolean values in Objective-C. It has two values, YES, and NO, in contrast to the more
common "true" and "false".

Its behavior is straightforward and identical to the C language's.

BOOL areEqual = (1 == 1); // areEqual is YES

BOOL areNotEqual = !areEqual // areNotEqual is NO
NSCAssert(areEqual, "Mathematics is a lie"); // Assertion passes

BOOL shouldFlatterReader = YES;

if (shouldFlatterReader) {
NSLog(@"Only the very smartest programmers read this kind of material.");
}

A BOOL is a primitive, and so it cannot be stored directly in a Foundation collection. It must be wrapped in an
NSNumber. Clang provides special syntax for this:

NSNumber * yes = @YES; // Equivalent to [NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 4

NSNumber * no = @NO; // Equivalent to [NSNumber numberWithBool:NO]

The BOOL implementation is directly based on C's, in that it is a typedef of the C99 standard type bool. The YES and
NO values are defined to __objc_yes and __objc_no, respectively. These special values are compiler builtins
introduced by Clang, which are translated to (BOOL)1 and (BOOL)0. If they are not available, YES and NO are defined
directly as the cast-integer form. The definitions are found in the Objective-C runtime header objc.h

Section 2.3: id
id is the generic object pointer, an Objective-C type representing "any object". An instance of any Objective-C class
can be stored in an id variable. An id and any other class type can be assigned back and forth without casting:

id anonymousSurname = @"Doe";
NSString * surname = anonymousSurname;
id anonymousFullName = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@, John", surname];

This becomes relevant when retrieving objects from a collection. The return types of methods like objectAtIndex:
are id for exactly this reason.

DataRecord * record = [records objectAtIndex:anIndex];

It also means that a method or function parameter typed as id can accept any object.

When an object is typed as id, any known message can be passed to it: method dispatch does not depend on the
compile-time type.

NSString * extinctBirdMaybe =
[anonymousSurname stringByAppendingString:anonymousSurname];

A message that the object does not actually respond to will still cause an exception at runtime, of course.

NSDate * nope = [anonymousSurname addTimeInterval:10];

// Raises "Does not respond to selector" exception

Guarding against exception.

NSDate * nope;
if([anonymousSurname isKindOfClass:[NSDate class]]){
nope = [anonymousSurname addTimeInterval:10];
}

The id type is defined in objc.h

typedef struct objc_object {

Class isa;
} *id;

Section 2.4: IMP (implementation pointer)

IMP is a C type referring to the implementation of a method, also known as an implementation pointer. It is a
pointer to the start of a method implementation.

Syntax:

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 5

id (*IMP)(id, SEL, …)

IMP is defined by:

typedef id (*IMP)(id self,SEL _cmd,…);

To access this IMP, the message “methodForSelector” can be used.

Example 1:

IMP ImpDoSomething = [myObject methodForSelector:@selector(doSomething)];

The method addressed by the IMP can be called by dereferencing the IMP.

ImpDoSomething(myObject, @selector(doSomething));

So these calls are equal:

myImpDoSomething(myObject, @selector(doSomething));
[myObject doSomething]
[myObject performSelector:mySelector]
[myObject performSelector:@selector(doSomething)]
[myObject performSelector:NSSelectorFromString(@"doSomething")];

Example 2:

SEL otherWaySelector = NSSelectorFromString(@“methodWithFirst:andSecond:andThird:");

IMP methodImplementation = [self methodForSelector:otherWaySelector];

result = methodImplementation( self,

betterWaySelector,
first,
second,
third );

NSLog(@"methodForSelector : %@", result);

Here, we call [NSObject methodForSelector which returns us a pointer to the C function that actually implements
the method, which we can the subsequently call directly.

Section 2.5: NSInteger and NSUInteger

The NSInteger is just a typedef for either an int or a long depending on the architecture. The same goes for a
NSUInteger which is a typedef for the unsigned variants. If you check the NSInteger you will see the following:

#if __LP64__ || (TARGET_OS_EMBEDDED && !TARGET_OS_IPHONE) || TARGET_OS_WIN32 || NS_BUILD_32_LIKE_64

typedef long NSInteger;
typedef unsigned long NSUInteger;
#else
typedef int NSInteger;
typedef unsigned int NSUInteger;
#endif

The difference between an signed and an unsigned int or long is that a signed int or long can contain negative

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 6

values. The range of the int is -2 147 483 648 to 2 147 483 647 while the unsigned int has a range of 0 to 4 294 967
295. The value is doubled because the first bit isn't used anymore to say the value is negative or not. For a long and
NSInteger on 64-bit architectures, the range is much wider.

Most methods Apple provides are returning an NS(U)Integer over the normal int. You'll get a warning if you try to
cast it to a normal int because you will lose precision if you are running on a 64-bit architecture. Not that it would
matter in most cases, but it is easier to use NS(U)Integer. For example, the count method on an array will return an
NSUInteger.

NSNumber *iAmNumber = @0;

NSInteger iAmSigned = [iAmNumber integerValue];

NSUInteger iAmUnsigned = [iAmNumber unsignedIntegerValue];

NSLog(@"%ld", iAmSigned); // The way to print a NSInteger.

NSLog(@"%lu", iAmUnsigned); // The way to print a NSUInteger.

Just like a BOOL, the NS(U)Integer is a primitive datatype, so you sometimes need to wrap it in a NSNumber you can
use the @ before the integer to cast it like above and retrieve it using the methods below. But to cast it to
NSNumber, you could also use the following methods:

[NSNumber numberWithInteger:0];
[NSNumber numberWithUnsignedInteger:0];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 7

Chapter 3: Enums
Section 3.1: typedef enum declaration in Objective-C
A enum declares a set of ordered values - the typedef just adds a handy name to this. The 1st element is 0 etc.

typedef enum {
Monday=1,
Tuesday,
Wednesday

} WORKDAYS;

WORKDAYS today = Monday;//value 1

Section 3.2: Converting C++ std::vector<Enum> to an

Objective-C Array
Many C++ libraries use enums and return/receive data using vectors that contain enums. As C enums are not
Objective-C objects, Objective-C collections cannot be used directly with C enums. The example below deals with
this by using a combination of an NSArray and generics and a wrapper object for the array. This way, the collection
can be explicit about the data type and there is no worry about possible memory leaks with C arrays Objective-C
objects are used.

Here is the C enum & Objective-C equivalent object:

typedef enum
{
Error0 = 0,
Error1 = 1,
Error2 = 2
} MyError;

@interface ErrorEnumObj : NSObject

@property (nonatomic) int intValue;

+ (instancetype) objWithEnum:(MyError) myError;

- (MyError) getEnumValue;

@end

@implementation ErrorEnumObj

+ (instancetype) objWithEnum:(MyError) error

{
ErrorEnumObj * obj = [ErrorEnumObj new];
obj.intValue = (int)error;
return obj;
}

- (MyError) getEnumValue
{
return (MyError)self.intValue;
}

@end

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 8

And here is a possible use of it in Objective-C++ (the resulting NSArray can be used in Objective-C only files as no
C++ is used).

class ListenerImpl : public Listener

{
public:
ListenerImpl(Listener* listener) : _listener(listener) {}
void onError(std::vector<MyError> errors) override
{
NSMutableArray<ErrorEnumObj *> * array = [NSMutableArray<ErrorEnumObj *> new];
for (auto&& myError : errors)
{
[array addObject:[ErrorEnumObj objWithEnum:myError]];
}
[_listener onError:array];
}

private:
__weak Listener* _listener;
}

If this kind of solution is to be used on multiple enums, the creation of the EnumObj (declaration & implementation)
can be done using a macro (to create a template like solution).

Section 3.3: Defining an enum

Enums are defined by the following the syntax above.

typedef NS_ENUM(NSUInteger, MyEnum) {

MyEnumValueA,
MyEnumValueB,
MyEnumValueC,
};

You also can set your own raw-values to the enumeration types.

typedef NS_ENUM(NSUInteger, MyEnum) {

MyEnumValueA = 0,
MyEnumValueB = 5,
MyEnumValueC = 10,
};

You can also specify on the first value and all the following will use it with increment:

typedef NS_ENUM(NSUInteger, MyEnum) {

MyEnumValueA = 0,
MyEnumValueB,
MyEnumValueC,
};

Variables of this enum can be created by MyEnum enumVar = MyEnumValueA.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 9

Chapter 4: Structs
Section 4.1: Defining a Structure and Accessing Structure
Members
The format of the struct statement is this:

struct [structure tag]

{
member definition;
member definition;
...
member definition;
} [one or more structure variables];

Example: declare the ThreeFloats structure:

typedef struct {
float x, y, z;
} ThreeFloats;

@interface MyClass
- (void)setThreeFloats:(ThreeFloats)threeFloats;
- (ThreeFloats)threeFloats;
@end

Sending an instance of MyClass the message valueForKey: with the parameter @"threeFloats" will invoke the
MyClass method threeFloats and return the result wrapped in an NSValue.

Section 4.2: CGPoint

One really good example of a struct is CGPoint; it's a simple value that represents a 2-dimensional point. It has 2
properties, x and y, and can be written as

typedef struct {
CGFloat x;
CGFloat y;
} CGPoint;

If you used Objective-C for Mac or iOS app development before, you've almost certainly come across CGPoint;
CGPoints hold the position of pretty much everything on screen, from views and controls to objects in a game to
changes in a gradient. This means that CGPoints are used a lot. This is even more true with really performance-
heavy games; these games tend to have a lot of objects, and all of these objects need positions. These positions are
often either CGPoints, or some other type of struct that conveys a point (such as a 3-dimensional point for 3d
games).

Points like CGPoint could easily be represented as objects, like

@interface CGPoint {
CGFloat x;
CGFloat y;
}

... //Point-related methods (e.g. add, isEqualToPoint, etc.)

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 10

@property(nonatomic, assign)CGFloat x;
@property(nonatomic, assign)CGFloat y;

@end

@implementation CGPoint

@synthesize x, y;

...

@end

However, if CGPoint was used in this way it would take a lot longer to create and manipulate points. In smaller,
faster programs this wouldn't really cause a difference, and in those cases it would be OK or maybe even better to
use object points. But in large programs where points are be used a lot, using objects as points can really hurt
performance, making the program slower, and also waste memory, which could force the program to crash.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 11

Chapter 5: Classes and Objects
Section 5.1: Dierence between allocation and initialization
In most object oriented languages, allocating memory for an object and initializing it is an atomic operation:

// Both allocates memory and calls the constructor

MyClass object = new MyClass();

In Objective-C, these are separate operations. The class methods alloc (and its historic sibling allocWithZone:)
makes the Objective-C runtime reserve the required memory and clears it. Except for a few internal values, all
properties and variables are set to 0/NO/nil.

The object then is already "valid" but we always want to call a method to actually set up the object, which we call an
initializer. These serve the same purpose as constructors in other languages. By convention, these methods start
with init. From a language point of view, they are just normal methods.

// Allocate memory and set all properties and variables to 0/NO/nil.

MyClass *object = [MyClass alloc];
// Initialize the object.
object = [object init];

// Shorthand:
object = [[MyClass alloc] init];

Section 5.2: Creating classes with initialization values

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
@interface Car:NSObject {
NSString *CarMotorCode;
NSString *CarChassisCode;
}

- (instancetype)initWithMotorValue:(NSString *) motorCode andChassisValue:(NSInteger)chassisCode;

- (void) startCar;
- (void) stopCar;

@end

@implementation Car

- (instancetype)initWithMotorValue:(NSString *) motorCode andChassisValue:(NSInteger)chassisCode{

CarMotorCode = motorCode;
CarChassisCode = chassisCode;
return self;
}

- (void) startCar {...}

- (void) stopCar {...}

@end

The method initWithMotorValue: type andChassisValue: type will be used to initialize the Car objects.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 12

Section 5.3: Specifying Generics
You can enhance your own classes with generics just like NSArray or NSDictionary.

@interface MyClass<__covariant T>

@property (nonnull, nonatomic, strong, readonly) NSArray<T>* allObjects;

- (void) addObject:(nonnull T)obj;

@end

Section 5.4: Singleton Class

What is a Singleton Class?

A singleton class returns the same instance no matter how many times an application requests it. Unlike a regular
class, A singleton object provides a global point of access to the resources of its class.

When to Use Singleton Classes?

Singletons are used in situations where this single point of control is desirable, such as with classes that offer some
general service or resource.

How to Create Singleton Classes

First, create a New file and subclass it from NSObject. Name it anything, we will use CommonClass here. Xcode will
now generate CommonClass.h and CommonClass.m files for you.

In your CommonClass.h file:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface CommonClass : NSObject {

}
+ (CommonClass *)sharedObject;
@property NSString *commonString;
@end

In your CommonClass.m File:

#import "CommonClass.h"

@implementation CommonClass

+ (CommonClass *)sharedObject {
static CommonClass *sharedClass = nil;
static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
sharedClass = [[self alloc] init];
});
return sharedClass;
}

- (id)init {
if (self = [super init]) {
self.commonString = @"this is string";
}

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 13

 return self;
}

@end

How to Use Singleton Classes

The Singleton Class that we created earlier will be accessible from anywhere in the project as long as you have
imported CommonClass.h file in the relevant module. To modify and access the shared data in Singleton Class, you
will have to access the shared Object of that class which can be accessed by using sharedObject method like
following:

[CommonClass sharedObject]

To read or modify the elements in Shared Class, do the following:

NSString *commonString = [[CommonClass sharedObject].commonString; //Read the string in singleton

class

NSString *newString = @"New String";

[CommonClass sharedObject].commonString = newString;//Modified the string in singleton class

Section 5.5: The "instancetype" return type

Objective-C supports a special type called `instancetype that can only be used as type returned by a method. It
evaluates to the class of the receiving object.

Consider the following class hierarchy:

@interface Foo : NSObject

- (instancetype)initWithString:(NSString *)string;

@end

@interface Bar : Foo

@end

When [[Foo alloc] initWithString:@"abc"] is called, the compiler can infer that the return type is Foo *. The
Bar class derived from Foo but did not override the declaration of the initializer. Yet, thanks to instancetype, the
compiler can infer that [[Bar alloc] initWithString:@"xyz"] returns a value of type Bar *.

Consider the return type of -[Foo initWithString:] being Foo * instead: if you would call [[Bar alloc]
initWithString:], the compiler would infer that a Foo * is returned, not a Bar * as is the intention of the
developer. The instancetype solved this issue.

Before the introduction of instancetype, initializers, static methods like singleton accessors and other methods
that want to return an instance of the receiving class needed to return an id. The problem is that id means "an
object of any type". The compiler is thus not able to detect that NSString *wrong = [[Foo alloc]
initWithString:@"abc"]; is assigning to a variable with an incorrect type.

Due to this issue, initializers should always use instancetype instead of id as the return value.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 14

Chapter 6: Inheritance
Section 6.1: Car is inherited from Vehicle
Consider a base class Vehicle and its derived class Car as follows:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Vehicle : NSObject

{
NSString *vehicleName;
NSInteger vehicleModelNo;
}

- (id)initWithName:(NSString *)name andModel:(NSInteger)modelno;

- (void)print;
@end

@implementation Vehicle

- (id)initWithName:(NSString *)name andModel:(NSInteger)modelno{

vehicleName = name;
vehicleModelNo = modelno;
return self;
}

- (void)print{
NSLog(@"Name: %@", vehicleName);
NSLog(@"Model: %ld", vehicleModelNo);
}

@end

@interface Car : Vehicle

{
NSString *carCompanyName;
}

- (id)initWithName:(NSString *)name andModel:(NSInteger)modelno

andCompanyName:(NSString *)companyname;
- (void)print;

@end

@implementation Car

- (id)initWithName:(NSString *)name andModel:(NSInteger) modelno

andCompanyName: (NSString *) companyname
{
vehicleName = name;
vehicleModelNo = modelno;
carCompanyName = companyname;
return self;
}
- (void)print
{
NSLog(@"Name: %@", vehicleName);

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 15

 NSLog(@"Model: %ld", vehicleModelNo);
NSLog(@"Company: %@", carCompanyName);
}

@end

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])

{
NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
NSLog(@"Base class Vehicle Object");
Vehicle *vehicle = [[Vehicle alloc]initWithName:@"4Wheeler" andModel:1234];
[vehicle print];
NSLog(@"Inherited Class Car Object");
Car *car = [[Car alloc]initWithName:@"S-Class"
andModel:7777 andCompanyName:@"Benz"];
[car print];
[pool drain];
return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

2016-09-29 18:21:03.561 Inheritance[349:303] Base class Vehicle Object

2016-09-29 18:21:03.563 Inheritance[349:303] Name: 4Wheeler

2016-09-29 18:21:03.563 Inheritance[349:303] Model: 1234

2016-09-29 18:21:03.564 Inheritance[349:303] Inherited Class Car Object

2016-09-29 18:21:03.564 Inheritance[349:303] Name: S-Class

2016-09-29 18:21:03.565 Inheritance[349:303] Model: 7777

2016-09-29 18:21:03.565 Inheritance[349:303] Company: Benz

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 16

Chapter 7: Methods
Section 7.1: Class methods
A class method is called on the class the method belongs to, not an instance of it. This is possible because
Objective-C classes are also objects. To denote a method as a class method, change the - to a +:

+ (void)hello {
NSLog(@"Hello World");
}

Section 7.2: Pass by value parameter passing

In pass by value of parameter passing to a method, actual parameter value is copied to formal parameter value. So
actual parameter value will not change after returning from called function.

@interface SwapClass : NSObject

-(void) swap:(NSInteger)num1 andNum2:(NSInteger)num2;

@end

@implementation SwapClass

-(void) num:(NSInteger)num1 andNum2:(NSInteger)num2{

int temp;
temp = num1;
num1 = num2;
num2 = temp;
}
@end

Calling the methods:

NSInteger a = 10, b =20;

SwapClass *swap = [[SwapClass alloc]init];
NSLog(@"Before calling swap: a=%d,b=%d",a,b);
[swap num:a andNum2:b];
NSLog(@"After calling swap: a=%d,b=%d",a,b);

Output:

2016-07-30 23:55:41.870 Test[5214:81162] Before calling swap: a=10,b=20

2016-07-30 23:55:41.871 Test[5214:81162] After calling swap: a=10,b=20

Section 7.3: Pass by reference parameter passing

In pass by reference of parameter passing to a method, address of actual parameter is passed to formal parameter.
So actual parameter value will be changed after returning from called function.

@interface SwapClass : NSObject

-(void) swap:(int)num1 andNum2:(int)num2;

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 17

@end

@implementation SwapClass

-(void) num:(int*)num1 andNum2:(int*)num2{

int temp;
temp = *num1;
*num1 = *num2;
*num2 = temp;
}
@end

Calling the methods:

int a = 10, b =20;

SwapClass *swap = [[SwapClass alloc]init];
NSLog(@"Before calling swap: a=%d,b=%d",a,b);
[swap num:&a andNum2:&b];
NSLog(@"After calling swap: a=%d,b=%d",a,b);

Output:

2016-07-31 00:01:47.067 Test[5260:83491] Before calling swap: a=10,b=20

2016-07-31 00:01:47.070 Test[5260:83491] After calling swap: a=20,b=10

Section 7.4: Method parameters

If you want to pass in values to a method when it is called, you use parameters:

- (int)addInt:(int)intOne toInt:(int)intTwo {
return intOne + intTwo;
}

The colon (:) separates the parameter from the method name.

The parameter type goes in the parentheses (int).

The parameter name goes after the parameter type.

Section 7.5: Create a basic method

This is how to create a basic method that logs 'Hello World" to the console:

- (void)hello {
NSLog(@"Hello World");
}

The - at the beginning denotes this method as an instance method.

The (void) denotes the return type. This method doesn't return anything, so you enter void.

The 'hello' is the name of the method.

Everything in the {} is the code run when the method is called.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 18

Section 7.6: Return values
When you want to return a value from a method, you put the type you want to return in the first set of parentheses.

- (NSString)returnHello {
return @"Hello World";
}

The value you want to return goes after the return keyword;

Section 7.7: Calling methods

Calling an instance method:

[classInstance hello];

@interface Sample
-(void)hello; // exposing the class Instance method
@end

@implementation Sample
-(void)hello{
NSLog(@"hello");
}
@end

Calling an instance method on the current instance:

[self hello];

@implementation Sample

-(void)otherMethod{
[self hello];
}

-(void)hello{
NSLog(@"hello");
}
@end

Calling a method that takes arguments:

[classInstance addInt:1 toInt:2];

@implementation Sample
-(void)add:(NSInteger)add to:(NSInteger)to
NSLog(@"sum = %d",(add+to));
}
@end

Calling a class method:

[Class hello];

@interface Sample
+(void)hello; // exposing the class method
@end

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 19

 @implementation Sample
+(void)hello{
NSLog(@"hello");
}
@end

Section 7.8: Instance methods

An instance method is a method that's available on a particular instance of a class, after the instance has been
instantiated:

MyClass *instance = [MyClass new];

[instance someInstanceMethod];

Here's how you define one:

@interface MyClass : NSObject

- (void)someInstanceMethod; // "-" denotes an instance method

@end

@implementation MyClass

- (void)someInstanceMethod {
NSLog(@"Whose idea was it to have a method called \"someInstanceMethod\"?");
}

@end

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 20

Chapter 8: Properties
Attribute Description
atomic Implicit. Enables synchronization in synthesized accessor methods.
nonatomic Disables synchronization in the synthesized accessor methods.
readwrite Implicit. Synthesizes getter, setter and backing ivar.
readonly Synthesizes only the getter method and backing ivar, which can be assigned directly.
getter=name Specifies the name of getter method, implicit is propertyName.
Specifies the name of setter method, implicity is setPropertyName:. Colon : must be a part of
setter=name
the name.
Implicit for objects under ARC. The backing ivar is synthesized using __strong, which prevents
strong
deallocation of referenced object.
retain Synonym for strong.
copy Same as strong, but the synthesized setter also calls -copy on the new value.
Implicit, except for objects under ARC. The backing ivar is synthesized using
unsafe_unretained __unsafe_unretained, which (for objects) results in dangling pointer once the referenced
object deallocates.
assign Synonym for unsafe_unretained. Suitable for non-object types.
Backing ivar is synthesized using __weak, so the value will be nullified once the referenced
weak
object is deallocated.
Property accessors are synthesized as class methods, instead of instance methods. No backing
class
storage is synthesized.
nullable The property accepts nil values. Mainly used for Swift bridging.
nonnull The property doesn’t accept nil values. Mainly used for Swift bridging.
The property accepts nil values in setter, but never returns nil values from getter. Your
null_resettable custom implementation of getter or setter must ensure this behavior. Mainly used for Swift
bridging.
null_unspecified Implicit. The property doesn’t specify handling of nil values. Mainly used for Swift bridging.

Section 8.1: Custom getters and setters

The default property getters and setters can be overridden:

@interface TestClass

@property NSString *someString;

@end

@implementation TestClass

// override the setter to print a message

- (void)setSomeString:(NSString *)newString {
NSLog(@"Setting someString to %@", newString);
// Make sure to access the ivar (default is the property name with a _
// at the beginning) because calling self.someString would call the same
// method again leading to an infinite recursion
_someString = newString;
}

- (void)doSomething {
// The next line will call the setSomeString: method
self.someString = @"Test";
}

@end

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 21

This can be useful to provide, for example, lazy initialization (by overriding the getter to set the initial value if it has
not yet been set):

- (NSString *)someString {
if (_someString == nil) {
_someString = [self getInitialValueForSomeString];
}
return _someString;
}

You can also make a property that computes its value in the getter:

@interface Circle : NSObject

@property CGPoint origin;

@property CGFloat radius;
@property (readonly) CGFloat area;

@end

@implementation Circle

- (CGFloat)area {
return M_PI * pow(self.radius, 2);
}

@end

Section 8.2: Properties that cause updates

This object, Shape has a property image that depends on numberOfSides and sideWidth. If either one of them is set,
than the image has to be recalculated. But recalculation is presumably long, and only needs to be done once if both
properties are set, so the Shape provides a way to set both properties and only recalculate once. This is done by
setting the property ivars directly.

In Shape.h

@interface Shape {
NSUInteger numberOfSides;
CGFloat sideWidth;

UIImage * image;
}

// Initializer that takes initial values for the properties.

- (instancetype)initWithNumberOfSides:(NSUInteger)numberOfSides withWidth:(CGFloat)width;

// Method that allows to set both properties in once call.

// This is useful if setting these properties has expensive side-effects.
// Using a method to set both values at once allows you to have the side-
// effect executed only once.
- (void)setNumberOfSides:(NSUInteger)numberOfSides andWidth:(CGFloat)width;

// Properties using default attributes.

@property NSUInteger numberOfSides;
@property CGFloat sideWidth;

// Property using explicit attributes.

@property(strong, readonly) UIImage * image;

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 22

@end

In Shape.m

@implementation AnObject

// The variable name of a property that is auto-generated by the compiler

// defaults to being the property name prefixed with an underscore, for
// example "_propertyName". You can change this default variable name using
// the following statement:
// @synthesize propertyName = customVariableName;

- (id)initWithNumberOfSides:(NSUInteger)numberOfSides withWidth:(CGFloat)width {
if ((self = [self init])) {
[self setNumberOfSides:numberOfSides andWidth:width];
}

return self;
}

- (void)setNumberOfSides:(NSUInteger)numberOfSides {
_numberOfSides = numberOfSides;

[self updateImage];
}

- (void)setSideWidth:(CGFloat)sideWidth {
_sideWidth = sideWidth;

[self updateImage];
}

- (void)setNumberOfSides:(NSUInteger)numberOfSides andWidth:(CGFloat)sideWidth {
_numberOfSides = numberOfSides;
_sideWidth = sideWidth;

[self updateImage];
}

// Method that does some post-processing once either of the properties has
// been updated.
- (void)updateImage {
...
}

@end

When properties are assigned to (using object.property = value), the setter method setProperty: is called. This
setter, even if provided by @synthesize, can be overridden, as it is in this case for numberOfSides and sideWidth.
However, if you set an property's ivar directly (through property if the object is self, or object->property), it
doesn't call the getter or setter, allowing you to do things like multiple property sets that only call one update or
bypass side-effects caused by the setter.

Section 8.3: What are properties?

Here is an example class which has a couple of instance variables, without using properties:

@interface TestClass : NSObject {

NSString *_someString;

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 23

 int _someInt;
}

-(NSString *)someString;
-(void)setSomeString:(NSString *)newString;

-(int)someInt;
-(void)setSomeInt:(NSString *)newInt;

@end

@implementation TestClass

-(NSString *)someString {
return _someString;
}

-(void)setSomeString:(NSString *)newString {
_someString = newString;
}

-(int)someInt {
return _someInt;
}

-(void)setSomeInt:(int)newInt {
_someInt = newInt;
}

@end

This is quite a lot of boilerplate code to create a simple instance variable. You have to create the instance variable &
create accessor methods which do nothing except set or return the instance variable. So with Objective-C 2.0, Apple
introduced properties, which auto-generate some or all of the boilerplate code.

Here is the above class rewritten with properties:

@interface TestClass

@property NSString *someString;

@property int someInt;

@end

@implementation testClass

@end

A property is an instance variable paired with auto-generated getters and setters. For a property called someString,
the getter and setter are called someString and setSomeString: respectively. The name of the instance variable is,
by default, the name of the property prefixed with an underscore (so the instance variable for someString is called
_someString, but this can be overridden with an @synthesize directive in the @implementation section:

@synthesize someString=foo; //names the instance variable "foo"

@synthesize someString; //names it "someString"
@synthesize someString=_someString; //names it "_someString"; the default if
//there is no @synthesize directive

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 24

Properties can be accessed by calling the getters and setters:

[testObject setSomeString:@"Foo"];
NSLog(@"someInt is %d", [testObject someInt]);

They can also be accessed using dot notation:

testObject.someString = @"Foo";
NSLog(@"someInt is %d", testObject.someInt);

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 25

Chapter 9: Random Integer
Section 9.1: Basic Random Integer
The arc4random_uniform() function is the simplest way to get high-quality random integers. As per the manual:

arc4random_uniform(upper_bound) will return a uniformly distributed random number less than

upper_bound.

arc4random_uniform() is recommended over constructions like ''arc4random() % upper_bound'' as it

avoids "modulo bias" when the upper bound is not a power of two.

uint32_t randomInteger = arc4random_uniform(5); // A random integer between 0 and 4

Section 9.2: Random Integer within a Range

The following code demonstrates usage of arc4random_uniform() to generate a random integer between 3 and 12:

uint32_t randomIntegerWithinRange = arc4random_uniform(10) + 3; // A random integer between 3 and

12

This works to create a range because arc4random_uniform(10) returns an integer between 0 and 9. Adding 3 to
this random integer produces a range between 0 + 3 and 9 + 3.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 26

Chapter 10: BOOL / bool / Boolean /
NSCFBoolean
Section 10.1: BOOL/Boolean/bool/NSCFBoolean
1. bool is a datatype defined in C99.
2. Boolean values are used in conditionals, such as if or while statements, to conditionally perform logic or
repeat execution. When evaluating a conditional statement, the value 0 is considered “false”, while any other
value is considered “true”. Because NULL and nil are defined as 0, conditional statements on these
nonexistent values are also evaluated as “false”.
3. BOOL is an Objective-C type defined as signed char with the macros YES and NO to represent true and false

From the definition in objc.h:

#if (TARGET_OS_IPHONE && __LP64__) || TARGET_OS_WATCH

typedef bool BOOL;
#else
typedef signed char BOOL;
// BOOL is explicitly signed so @encode(BOOL) == "c" rather than "C"
// even if -funsigned-char is used.
#endif

#define YES ((BOOL)1)

#define NO ((BOOL)0)

4. NSCFBoolean is a private class in the NSNumber class cluster. It is a bridge to the CFBooleanRef type, which
is used to wrap boolean values for Core Foundation property lists and collections. CFBoolean defines the
constants kCFBooleanTrue and kCFBooleanFalse. Because CFNumberRef and CFBooleanRef are different
types in Core Foundation, it makes sense that they are represented by different bridging classes in
NSNumber.

Section 10.2: BOOL VS Boolean

BOOL

Apple's Objective-C frameworks and most Objective-C/Cocoa code uses

BOOL.
Use BOOL in objective-C, when dealing with any CoreFoundation APIs

Boolean

Boolean is an old Carbon keyword , defined as an unsigned char

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 27

Chapter 11: Continue and Break!
Section 11.1: Continue and Break Statement
The continue statement in Objective-C programming language works somewhat like the break statement. Instead
of forcing termination, however, continue forces the next iteration of the loop to take place, skipping any code in
between.

For the for loop, continue statement causes the conditional test and increment portions of the loop to execute. For
the while and do...while loops, continue statement causes the program control pass to the conditional tests.

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main ()
{
/* local variable definition */
int a = 10;

/* do loop execution */
do
{
if( a == 15)
{
/* skip the iteration */
a = a + 1;
continue;
}
NSLog(@"value of a: %d\n", a);
a++;

}while( a < 20 );

return 0;
}

Output:

2013-09-07 22:20:35.647 demo[29998] value of a: 10

2013-09-07 22:20:35.647 demo[29998] value of a: 11
2013-09-07 22:20:35.647 demo[29998] value of a: 12
2013-09-07 22:20:35.647 demo[29998] value of a: 13
2013-09-07 22:20:35.647 demo[29998] value of a: 14
2013-09-07 22:20:35.647 demo[29998] value of a: 16
2013-09-07 22:20:35.647 demo[29998] value of a: 17
2013-09-07 22:20:35.647 demo[29998] value of a: 18
2013-09-07 22:20:35.647 demo[29998] value of a: 19

Refer to this link for more information.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 28

Chapter 12: Key Value Coding / Key Value
Observing
Section 12.1: Most Common Real Life Key Value Coding
Example
Key Value Coding is integrated into NSObject using NSKeyValueCoding protocol.

What this means?

It means that any id object is capable of calling valueForKey method and its various variants like valueForKeyPath
etc. '

It also means that any id object can invoke setValue method and its various variants too.

Example:

id obj = [[MyClass alloc] init];

id value = [obj valueForKey:@"myNumber"];

int myNumberAsInt = [value intValue];

myNumberAsInt = 53;
[obj setValue:@(myNumberAsInt) forKey:@"myNumber"];

Exceptions:

Above example assumes that MyClass has an NSNumber Property called myNumber. If myNumber does not
appear in MyClass interface definition, an NSUndefinedKeyException can be raised at possibly both lines 2 and 5 -
popularly known as:

this class is not key value coding-compliant for the key myNumber.

Why this is SO powerful:

You can write code that can access properties of a class dynamically, without needing interface for that class. This
means that a table view can display values from any properties of an NSObject derived object, provided its property
names are supplied dynamically at runtime.

In the example above, the code can as well work without MyClass being available and id type obj being available to
calling code.

Section 12.2: Querying KVC Data

if ([[dataObject objectForKey:@"yourVariable"] isEqualToString:"Hello World"]) {
return YES;
} else {
return NO;
}

You can query values stored using KVC quickly and easily, without needing to retrieve or cast these as local
variables.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 29

Section 12.3: Collection Operators
Collection Operators can be used in a KVC key path to perform an operation on a “collection-type” property (i.e.
NSArray, NSSet and similar). For example, a common operation to perform is to count the objects in a collection. To
achieve this, you use the @count collection operator:

self.array = @[@5, @4, @3, @2, @1];

NSNumber *count = [self.array valueForKeyPath:@"@count"];
NSNumber *countAlt = [self valueForKeyPath:@"array.@count"];
// count == countAlt == 5

While this is completely redundant here (we could have just accessed the count property), it can be useful on
occasion, though it is rarely necessary. There are, however, some collection operators that are much more useful,
namely @max, @min, @sum, @avg and the @unionOf family. It is important to note that these operators also require a
separate key path following the operator to function correctly. Here's a list of them and the type of data they work
with:

Operator Data Type

@count (none)
@max NSNumber, NSDate, int (and related), etc.
@min NSNumber, NSDate, int (and related), etc.
@sum NSNumber, int (and related), double (and related), etc.
@avg NSNumber, int (and related), double (and related), etc.
@unionOfObjects NSArray, NSSet, etc.
@distinctUnionOfObjects NSArray, NSSet, etc.
@unionOfArrays NSArray<NSArray*>
@distinctUnionOfArrays NSArray<NSArray*>
@distinctUnionOfSets NSSet<NSSet*>

@max and @min will return the highest or lowest value, respectively, of a property of objects in the collection. For
example, look at the following code:

// “Point” class used in our collection

@interface Point : NSObject

@property NSInteger x, y;

+ (instancetype)pointWithX:(NSInteger)x y:(NSInteger)y;

@end

...

self.points = @[[Point pointWithX:0 y:0],

[Point pointWithX:1 y:-1],
[Point pointWithX:5 y:-6],
[Point pointWithX:3 y:0],
[Point pointWithX:8 y:-4],
];

NSNumber *maxX = [self valueForKeyPath:@"[email protected]"];

NSNumber *minX = [self valueForKeyPath:@"[email protected]"];
NSNumber *maxY = [self valueForKeyPath:@"[email protected]"];
NSNumber *minY = [self valueForKeyPath:@"[email protected]"];

NSArray<NSNumber*> *boundsOfAllPoints = @[maxX, minX, maxY, minY];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 30

...

In just a 4 lines of code and pure Foundation, with the power of Key-Value Coding collection operators we were able
to extract a rectangle that encapsulates all of the points in our array.

It is important to note that these comparisons are made by invoking the compare: method on the objects, so if you
ever want to make your own class compatible with these operators, you must implement this method.

@sum will, as you can probably guess, add up all the values of a property.

@interface Expense : NSObject

@property NSNumber *price;

+ (instancetype)expenseWithPrice:(NSNumber *)price;

@end

...

self.expenses = @[[Expense expenseWithPrice:@1.50],

[Expense expenseWithPrice:@9.99],
[Expense expenseWithPrice:@2.78],
[Expense expenseWithPrice:@9.99],
[Expense expenseWithPrice:@24.95]
];

NSNumber *totalExpenses = [self valueForKeyPath:@"[email protected]"];

Here, we used @sum to find the total price of all the expenses in the array. If we instead wanted to find the average
price we're paying for each expense, we can use @avg:

NSNumber *averagePrice = [self valueForKeyPath:@"[email protected]"];

Finally, there's the @unionOf family. There are five different operators in this family, but they all work mostly the
same, with only small differences between each. First, there's @unionOfObjects which will return an array of the
properties of objects in an array:

// See "expenses" array above

NSArray<NSNumber*> *allPrices = [self valueForKeyPath:

@"[email protected]"];

// Equal to @[ @1.50, @9.99, @2.78, @9.99, @24.95 ]

@distinctUnionOfObjects functions the same as @unionOfObjects, but it removes duplicates:

NSArray<NSNumber*> *differentPrices = [self valueForKeyPath:

@"[email protected]"];

// Equal to @[ @1.50, @9.99, @2.78, @24.95 ]

And finally, the last 3 operators in the @unionOf family will go one step deeper and return an array of values found
for a property contained inside dually-nested arrays:

NSArray<NSArray<Expense*,Expense*>*> *arrayOfArrays =
@[

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 31

 @[ [Expense expenseWithPrice:@19.99],
[Expense expenseWithPrice:@14.95],
[Expense expenseWithPrice:@4.50],
[Expense expenseWithPrice:@19.99]
],

@[ [Expense expenseWithPrice:@3.75],
[Expense expenseWithPrice:@14.95]
]
];

// @unionOfArrays
NSArray<NSNumber*> allPrices = [arrayOfArrays valueForKeyPath:
@"@unionOfArrays.price"];
// Equal to @[ @19.99, @14.95, @4.50, @19.99, @3.75, @14.95 ];

// @distinctUnionOfArrays
NSArray<NSNumber*> allPrices = [arrayOfArrays valueForKeyPath:
@"@distinctUnionOfArrays.price"];
// Equal to @[ @19.99, @14.95, @4.50, @3.75 ];

The one missing from this example is @distinctUnionOfSets, however this functions exactly the same as
@distinctUnionOfArrays, but works with and returns NSSets instead (there is no non-distinct version because in
a set, every object must be distinct anyway).

And that's it! Collection operators can be really powerful if used correctly, and can help to avoid having to loop
through stuff unnecessarily.

One last note: you can also use the standard collection operators on arrays of NSNumbers (without additional
property access). To do this, you access the self pseudo-property that just returns the object:

NSArray<NSNumber*> *numbers = @[@0, @1, @5, @27, @1337, @2048];

NSNumber *largest = [numbers valueForKeyPath:@"@max.self"];

NSNumber *smallest = [numbers valueForKeyPath:@"@min.self"];
NSNumber *total = [numbers valueForKeyPath:@"@sum.self"];
NSNumber *average = [numbers valueForKeyPath:@"@avg.self"];

Section 12.4: Key Value Observing

Setting up key value observing.

In this case, we want to observe the contentOffset on an object that our observer owns

//
// Class to observe
//
@interface XYZScrollView: NSObject
@property (nonatomic, assign) CGPoint contentOffset;
@end

@implementation XYZScrollView
@end

//
// Class that will observe changes
//
@interface XYZObserver: NSObject

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 32

@property (nonatomic, strong) XYZScrollView *scrollView;
@end

@implementation XYZObserver

// simple way to create a KVO context

static void *XYZObserverContext = &XYZObserverContext;

// Helper method to add self as an observer to

// the scrollView's contentOffset property
- (void)addObserver {

// NSKeyValueObservingOptions
//
// - NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew
// - NSKeyValueObservingOptionOld
// - NSKeyValueObservingOptionInitial
// - NSKeyValueObservingOptionPrior
//
// can be combined:
// (NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew | NSKeyValueObservingOptionOld)

NSString *keyPath = NSStringFromSelector(@selector(contentOffset));

NSKeyValueObservingOptions options = NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew;

[self.scrollView addObserver: self

forKeyPath: keyPath
options: options
context: XYZObserverContext];
}

- (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object

change:(NSDictionary<NSString *,id> *)change context:(void *)context {

if (context == XYZObserverContext) { // check the context

// check the keyPath to see if it's any of the desired keyPath's.

// You can observe multiple keyPath's
if ([keyPath isEqualToString: NSStringFromSelector(@selector(contentOffset))]) {

// change dictionary keys:

// - NSKeyValueChangeKindKey
// - NSKeyValueChangeNewKey
// - NSKeyValueChangeOldKey
// - NSKeyValueChangeIndexesKey
// - NSKeyValueChangeNotificationIsPriorKey

// the change dictionary here for a CGPoint observation will

// return an NSPoint, so we can take the CGPointValue of it.
CGPoint point = [change[NSKeyValueChangeNewKey] CGPointValue];

// handle point
}

} else {

// if the context doesn't match our current object's context

// we want to pass the observation parameters to super
[super observeValueForKeyPath: keyPath
ofObject: object
change: change

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 33

 context: context];
}
}

// The program can crash if an object is not removed as observer

// before it is dealloc'd
//
// Helper method to remove self as an observer of the scrollView's
// contentOffset property
- (void)removeObserver {
NSString *keyPath = NSStringFromSelector(@selector(contentOffset));
[self.scrollView removeObserver: self forKeyPath: keyPath];
}

@end

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 34

Chapter 13: NSString
The NSString class is a part of Foundation framework to work with strings (series of characters). It also includes
methods for comparing, searching and modifying strings.

Section 13.1: Encoding and Decoding

// decode
NSString *string = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:utf8Data
encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

// encode
NSData *utf8Data = [string dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

Some supported encodings are:

NSASCIIStringEncoding
NSUTF8StringEncoding
NSUTF16StringEncoding (== NSUnicodeStringEncoding)

Note that utf8Data.bytes does not include a terminating null character, which is necessary for C strings. If you
need a C string, use UTF8String:

const char *cString = [string UTF8String];

printf("%s", cString);

Section 13.2: String Length

NSString has a length property to get the number of characters.

NSString *string = @"example";

NSUInteger length = string.length; // length equals 7

As in the Splitting Example, keep in mind that NSString uses UTF-16 to represent characters. The length is actually
just the number of UTF-16 code units. This can differ from what the user perceives as characters.

Here are some cases that might be surprising:

@"é".length == 1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE (U+00E9)

@"é".length == 2 // LATIN SMALL LETTER E (U+0065) + COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT (U+0301)
@"❤ ".length == 2 // HEAVY BLACK HEART (U+2764) + VARIATION SELECTOR-16 (U+FE0F)
@" ".length == 4 // REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER I (U+1F1EE) + REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL
LETTER T (U+1F1F9)

In order to get the number of user-perceived characters, known technically as "grapheme clusters", you must
iterate over the string with -enumerateSubstringsInRange:options:usingBlock: and keep a count. This is
demonstrated in an answer by Nikolai Ruhe on Stack Overflow.

Section 13.3: Comparing Strings

Strings are compared for equality using isEqualToString:

The == operator just tests for object identity and does not compare the logical values of objects, so it can't be used:

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 35

NSString *stringOne = @"example";
NSString *stringTwo = [stringOne mutableCopy];

BOOL objectsAreIdentical = (stringOne == stringTwo); // NO

BOOL stringsAreEqual = [stringOne isEqualToString:stringTwo]; // YES

The expression (stringOne == stringTwo) tests to see if the memory addresses of the two strings are the same,
which is usually not what we want.

If the string variables can be nil you have to take care about this case as well:

BOOL equalValues = stringOne == stringTwo || [stringOne isEqualToString:stringTwo];

This condition returns YES when strings have equal values or both are nil.

To order two strings alphabetically, use compare:.

NSComparisonResult result = [firstString compare:secondString];

NSComparisonResult can be:

NSOrderedAscending: The first string comes before the second string.

NSOrderedSame: The strings are equal.
NSOrderedDescending: The second string comes before the first string.

To compare two strings equality, use isEqualToString:.

BOOL result = [firstString isEqualToString:secondString];

To compare with the empty string (@""), better use length.

BOOL result = string.length == 0;

Section 13.4: Splitting

You can split a string into an array of parts, divided by a separator character.

NSString * yourString = @"Stack,Exchange,Network";

NSArray * yourWords = [yourString componentsSeparatedByString:@","];
// Output: @[@"Stack", @"Exchange", @"Network"]

If you need to split on a set of several different delimiters, use -[NSString

componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:].

NSString * yourString = @"Stack Overflow+Documentation/Objective-C";

NSArray * yourWords = [yourString componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:
[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"+/"]];
// Output: @[@"Stack Overflow", @"Documentation", @"Objective-C"]`

If you need to break a string into its individual characters, loop over the length of the string and convert each
character into a new string.

NSMutableArray * characters = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:[yourString length]];

for (int i = 0; i < [myString length]; i++) {
[characters addObject: [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%C",

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 36

 [yourString characterAtIndex:i]];
}

As in the Length Example, keep in mind that a "character" here is a UTF-16 code unit, not necessarily what the user
sees as a character. If you use this loop with @" ", you'll see that it's split into four pieces.

In order to get a list of the user-perceived characters, use -enumerateSubstringsInRange:options:usingBlock:.

NSMutableArray * characters = [NSMutableArray array];

[yourString enumerateSubstringsInRange:(NSRange){0, [yourString length]}
options:NSStringEnumerationByComposedCharacterSequences
usingBlock:^(NSString * substring, NSRange r, NSRange s, BOOL * b){
[characters addObject:substring];
}];

This preserves grapheme clusters like the Italian flag as a single substring.

Section 13.5: Searching for a Substring

To search if a String contains a substring, do the following:

NSString *myString = @"This is for checking substrings";

NSString *subString = @"checking";

BOOL doesContainSubstring = [myString containsString:subString]; // YES

If targeting iOS 7 or OS X 10.9 (or earlier):

BOOL doesContainSubstring = ([myString rangeOfString:subString].location != NSNotFound); // YES

Section 13.6: Creation

Simple:

NSString *newString = @"My String";

From multiple strings:

NSString *stringOne = @"Hello";

NSString *stringTwo = @"world";
NSString *newString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"My message: %@ %@",
stringOne, stringTwo];

Using Mutable String

NSString *stringOne = @"Hello";

NSString *stringTwo = @"World";
NSMutableString *mutableString = [NSMutableString new];
[mutableString appendString:stringOne];
[mutableString appendString:stringTwo];

From NSData:

When initializing from NSData, an explicit encoding must be provided as NSString is not able to guess how
characters are represented in the raw data stream. The most common encoding nowadays is UTF-8, which is even a

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 37

requirement for certain data like JSON.

Avoid using +[NSString stringWithUTF8String:] since it expects an explicitly NULL-terminated C-string, which -
[NSData bytes] does not provide.

NSString *newString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:myData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

From NSArray:

NSArray *myArray = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"Apple", @"Banana", @"Strawberry", @"Kiwi", nil];

NSString *newString = [myArray componentsJoinedByString:@" "];

Section 13.7: Changing Case

To convert a String to uppercase, use uppercaseString:

NSString *myString = @"Emphasize this";

NSLog(@"%@", [myString uppercaseString]; // @"EMPHASIZE THIS"

To convert a String to lowercase, use lowercaseString:

NSString *myString = @"NORMALIZE this";

NSLog(@"%@", [myString lowercaseString]; // @"normalize this"

To capitalize the first letter character of each word in a string, use capitalizedString:

NSString *myString = @"firstname lastname";

NSLog(@"%@", [myString capitalizedString]); // @"Firstname Lastname"

Section 13.8: Removing Leading and Trailing Whitespace

NSString *someString = @" Objective-C Language \n";
NSString *trimmedString = [someString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet
whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
//Output will be - "Objective-C Language"

Method stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet returns a new string made by removing from both ends of the String
characters contained in a given character set.

We can also just remove only whitespace or newline

// Removing only WhiteSpace

NSString *trimmedWhiteSpace = [someString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet
whitespaceCharacterSet]];
//Output will be - "Objective-C Language \n"

// Removing only NewLine

NSString *trimmedNewLine = [someString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet
newlineCharacterSet]];
//Output will be - " Objective-C Language "

Section 13.9: Joining an Array of Strings

To combine an NSArray of NSString into a new NSString:

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 38

NSArray *yourWords = @[@"Objective-C", @"is", @"just", @"awesome"];
NSString *sentence = [yourWords componentsJoinedByString:@" "];

// Sentence is now: @"Objective-C is just awesome"

Section 13.10: Formatting

The NSString formatting supports all the format strings available on the printf ANSI-C function. The only addition
made by the language is the %@ symbol used for formatting all the Objective-C objects.

It is possible to format integers

int myAge = 21;

NSString *formattedAge = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"I am %d years old", my_age];

Or any object subclassed from NSObject

NSDate *now = [NSDate date];

NSString *formattedDate = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"The time right now is: %@", now];

For a complete list of Format Specifiers, please see: Objective-C, Format Specifiers, Syntax

Section 13.11: Working with C Strings

To convert NSString to const char use -[NSString UTF8String]:

NSString *myNSString = @"Some string";

const char *cString = [myNSString UTF8String];

You could also use -[NSString cStringUsingEncoding:] if your string is encoded with something other than
UTF-8.

For the reverse path use -[NSString stringWithUTF8String:]:

const *char cString = "Some string";

NSString *myNSString = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:cString];
myNSString = @(cString); // Equivalent to the above.

Once you have the const char *, you can work with it similarly to an array of chars:

printf("%c\n", cString[5]);

If you want to modify the string, make a copy:

char *cpy = calloc(strlen(cString)+1, 1);

strncpy(cpy, cString, strlen(cString));
// Do stuff with cpy
free(cpy);

Section 13.12: Reversing a NSString Objective-C

// myString is "hi"
NSMutableString *reversedString = [NSMutableString string];
NSInteger charIndex = [myString length];
while (charIndex > 0) {

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 39

 charIndex--;
NSRange subStrRange = NSMakeRange(charIndex, 1);
[reversedString appendString:[myString substringWithRange:subStrRange]];
}
NSLog(@"%@", reversedString); // outputs "ih"

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 40

Chapter 14: NSArray
Section 14.1: Creating Arrays
Creating immutable arrays:

NSArray *myColors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: @"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow", nil];

// Using the array literal syntax:

NSArray *myColors = @[@"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow"];

For mutable arrays, see NSMutableArray.

Section 14.2: Accessing elements

NSArray *myColors = @[@"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow"];
// Preceding is the preferred equivalent to [NSArray arrayWithObjects:...]

Getting a single item

The objectAtIndex: method provides a single object. The first object in an NSArray is index 0. Since an NSArray can
be homogenous (holding different types of objects), the return type is id ("any object"). (An id can be assigned to a
variable of any other object type.) Importantly, NSArrays can only contain objects. They cannot contain values like
int.

NSUInteger idx = 2;
NSString *color = [myColors objectAtIndex:idx];
// color now points to the string @"Green"

Clang provides a better subscript syntax as part of its array literals functionality:

NSString *color = myColors[idx];

Both of these throw an exception if the passed index is less than 0 or greater than count - 1.

First and Last Item

NSString *firstColor = myColors.firstObject;
NSString *lastColor = myColors.lastObject;

The firstObject and lastObject are computed properties and return nil rather than crashing for empty arrays.
For single element arrays they return the same object. Although, the firstObject method was not introduced to
NSArray until iOS 4.0.

NSArray *empty = @[]

id notAnObject = empty.firstObject; // Returns `nil`
id kaboom = empty[0]; // Crashes; index out of bounds

Section 14.3: Using Generics

For added safety we can define the type of object that the array contains:

NSArray<NSString *> *colors = @[@"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow"];

NSMutableArray<NSString *> *myColors = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:colors];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 41

[myColors addObject:@"Orange"]; // OK
[myColors addObject:[UIColor purpleColor]]; // "Incompatible pointer type" warning

It should be noted that this is checked during compilation time only.

Section 14.4: Reverse an Array

NSArray *reversedArray = [myArray.reverseObjectEnumerator allObjects];

Section 14.5: Converting between Sets and Arrays

NSSet *set = [NSSet set];
NSArray *array = [NSArray array];

NSArray *fromSet = [set allObjects];

NSSet *fromArray = [NSSet setWithArray:array];

Section 14.6: Converting NSArray to NSMutableArray to allow

modification
NSArray *myColors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: @"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow", nil];

// Convert myColors to mutable

NSMutableArray *myColorsMutable = [myColors mutableCopy];

Section 14.7: Looping through

NSArray *myColors = @[@"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow"];

// Fast enumeration
// myColors cannot be modified inside the loop
for (NSString *color in myColors) {
NSLog(@"Element %@", color);
}

// Using indices
for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < myColors.count; i++) {
NSLog(@"Element %d = %@", i, myColors[i]);
}

// Using block enumeration

[myColors enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL * stop) {
NSLog(@"Element %d = %@", idx, obj);

// To abort use:
*stop = YES
}];

// Using block enumeration with options

[myColors enumerateObjectsWithOptions:NSEnumerationReverse usingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx,
BOOL * stop) {
NSLog(@"Element %d = %@", idx, obj);
}];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 42

Section 14.8: Enumerating using blocks
NSArray *myColors = @[@"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow"];
[myColors enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
NSLog(@"enumerating object %@ at index %lu", obj, idx);
}];

By setting the stop parameter to YES you can indicate that further enumeration is not needed. to do this simply set
&stop = YES.

NSEnumerationOptions
You can enumerate the array in reverse and / or concurrently :

[myColors enumerateObjectsWithOptions:NSEnumerationConcurrent | NSEnumerationReverse

usingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
NSLog(@"enumerating object %@ at index %lu", obj, idx);
}];

Enumerating subset of array

NSIndexSet *indexSet = [NSIndexSet indexSetWithIndexesInRange:NSMakeRange(1, 1)];

[myColors enumerateObjectsAtIndexes:indexSet
options:kNilOptions
usingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
NSLog(@"enumerating object %@ at index %lu", obj, idx);
}];

Section 14.9: Comparing arrays

Arrays can be compared for equality with the aptly named isEqualToArray: method, which returns YES when both
arrays have the same number of elements and every pair pass an isEqual: comparison.

NSArray *germanMakes = @[@"Mercedes-Benz", @"BMW", @"Porsche",

@"Opel", @"Volkswagen", @"Audi"];
NSArray *sameGermanMakes = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"Mercedes-Benz",
@"BMW", @"Porsche", @"Opel",
@"Volkswagen", @"Audi", nil];

if ([germanMakes isEqualToArray:sameGermanMakes]) {
NSLog(@"Oh good, literal arrays are the same as NSArrays");
}

The important thing is every pair must pass the isEqual: test. For custom objects this method should be
implemented. It exists in the NSObject protocol.

Section 14.10: Filtering Arrays With Predicates

NSArray *array = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"Nick", @"Ben", @"Adam", @"Melissa", nil];

NSPredicate *aPredicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"SELF beginswith[c] 'a'"];

NSArray *beginWithA = [array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:bPredicate];
// beginWithA contains { @"Adam" }.

NSPredicate *ePredicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"SELF contains[c] 'e'"];

[array filterUsingPredicate:ePredicate];
// array now contains { @"Ben", @"Melissa" }

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 43

More about

NSPredicate:

Apple doc : NSPredicate

Section 14.11: Sorting array with custom objects

Compare method

Either you implement a compare-method for your object:

- (NSComparisonResult)compare:(Person *)otherObject {
return [self.birthDate compare:otherObject.birthDate];
}

NSArray *sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)];

NSSortDescriptor
NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor;
sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"birthDate"
ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = [NSArray arrayWithObject:sortDescriptor];
NSArray *sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:sortDescriptors];

You can easily sort by multiple keys by adding more than one to the array. Using custom comparator-methods is
possible as well. Have a look at the documentation.

Blocks
NSArray *sortedArray;
sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingComparator:^NSComparisonResult(id a, id b) {
NSDate *first = [(Person*)a birthDate];
NSDate *second = [(Person*)b birthDate];
return [first compare:second];
}];

Performance

The -compare: and block-based methods will be quite a bit faster, in general, than using NSSortDescriptor as the
latter relies on KVC. The primary advantage of the NSSortDescriptor method is that it provides a way to define
your sort order using data, rather than code, which makes it easy to e.g. set things up so users can sort an
NSTableView by clicking on the header row.

Section 14.12: Sorting Arrays

The most flexible ways to sort an array is with the sortedArrayUsingComparator: method. This accepts an
^NSComparisonResult(id obj1, id obj2) block.

Return Value Description

NSOrderedAscending obj1 comes before obj2
NSOrderedSame obj1 and obj2 have no order
NSOrderedDescending obj1 comes after obj2

Example:

NSArray *categoryArray = @[@"Apps", @"Music", @"Songs",

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 44

 @"iTunes", @"Books", @"Videos"];

NSArray *sortedArray = [categoryArray sortedArrayUsingComparator:

^NSComparisonResult(id obj1, id obj2) {
if ([obj1 length] < [obj2 length]) {
return NSOrderedAscending;
} else if ([obj1 length] > [obj2 length]) {
return NSOrderedDescending;
} else {
return NSOrderedSame;
}
}];

NSLog(@"%@", sortedArray);

Section 14.13: Filter NSArray and NSMutableArray

NSMutableArray *array =
[NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects:@"Ken", @"Tim", @"Chris", @"Steve",@"Charlie",@"Melissa",
nil];

NSPredicate *bPredicate =
[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"SELF beginswith[c] 'c'"];
NSArray *beginWithB =
[array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:bPredicate];
// beginWith "C" contains { @"Chris", @"Charlie" }.

NSPredicate *sPredicate =
[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"SELF contains[c] 'a'"];
[array filterUsingPredicate:sPredicate];
// array now contains { @"Charlie", @"Melissa" }

Section 14.14: Add objects to NSArray

NSArray *a = @[@1];
a = [a arrayByAddingObject:@2];
a = [a arrayByAddingObjectsFromArray:@[@3, @4, @5]];

These methods are optimized to recreate the new array very efficiently, usually without having to destroy the
original array or even allocate more memory.

Section 14.15: Finding out the Number of Elements in an Array

NSArray *myColors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: @"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow", nil];
NSLog (@"Number of elements in array = %lu", [myColors count]);

Section 14.16: Creating NSArray instances

NSArray *array1 = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"one", @"two", @"three", nil];
NSArray *array2 = @[@"one", @"two", @"three"];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 45

Chapter 15: NSMutableArray
Section 15.1: Sorting Arrays
NSMutableArray *myColors = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects: @"red", @"green", @"blue", @"yellow",
nil];
NSArray *sortedArray;
sortedArray = [myColors sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:)];

Section 15.2: Creating an NSMutableArray

NSMutableArray can be initialized as an empty array like this:

NSMutableArray *array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

// or
NSMutableArray *array2 = @[].mutableCopy;
// or
NSMutableArray *array3 = [NSMutableArray array];

NSMutableArray can be initialized with another array like this:

NSMutableArray *array4 = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:anotherArray];

// or
NSMutableArray *array5 = anotherArray.mutableCopy;

Section 15.3: Adding elements

NSMutableArray *myColors;
myColors = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects: @"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow", nil];
[myColors addObject: @"Indigo"];
[myColors addObject: @"Violet"];

//Add objects from an NSArray

NSArray *myArray = @[@"Purple",@"Orange"];
[myColors addObjectsFromArray:myArray];

Section 15.4: Insert Elements

NSMutableArray *myColors;
int i;
int count;
myColors = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects: @"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow", nil];
[myColors insertObject: @"Indigo" atIndex: 1];
[myColors insertObject: @"Violet" atIndex: 3];

Section 15.5: Deleting Elements

Remove at specific index:

[myColors removeObjectAtIndex: 3];

Remove the first instance of a specific object:

[myColors removeObject: @"Red"];

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Remove all instances of a specific object:

[myColors removeObjectIdenticalTo: @"Red"];

Remove all objects:

[myColors removeAllObjects];

Remove last object:

[myColors removeLastObject];

Section 15.6: Move object to another index

Move Blue to the beginning of the array:

NSMutableArray *myColors = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects: @"Red", @"Green", @"Blue", @"Yellow",

nil];

NSUInteger fromIndex = 2;
NSUInteger toIndex = 0;

id blue = [[[self.array objectAtIndex:fromIndex] retain] autorelease];

[self.array removeObjectAtIndex:fromIndex];
[self.array insertObject:blue atIndex:toIndex];

myColors is now [@"Blue", @"Red", @"Green", @"Yellow"].

Section 15.7: Filtering Array content with Predicate

Using filterUsingPredicate: This Evaluates a given predicate against the arrays content and return objects that
match.

Example:

NSMutableArray *array = [NSMutableArray array];

[array setArray:@[@"iOS",@"macOS",@"tvOS"]];
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"SELF beginswith[c] 'i'"];
NSArray *resultArray = [array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:predicate];
NSLog(@"%@",resultArray);

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 47

Chapter 16: NSDictionary
Section 16.1: Create
NSDictionary *dict = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:@"value1", @"key1", @"value2",
@"key2", nil];

or

NSArray *keys = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"key1", @"key2", nil];

NSArray *objects = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"value1", @"value2", nil];
NSDictionary *dictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjects:objects
forKeys:keys];

or using appropriate literal syntax

NSDictionary *dict = @{@"key": @"value", @"nextKey": @"nextValue"};

Section 16.2: Fast Enumeration

NSDictionary can be enumerated using fast enumeration, just like other collection types:

NSDictionary stockSymbolsDictionary = @{
@"AAPL": @"Apple",
@"GOOGL": @"Alphabet",
@"MSFT": @"Microsoft",
@"AMZN": @"Amazon"
};

for (id key in stockSymbolsDictionary)

{
id value = dictionary[key];
NSLog(@"Key: %@, Value: %@", key, value);
}

Because NSDictionary is inherently unordered, the order of keys that in the for loop is not guaranteed.

Section 16.3: Creating using literals

NSDictionary *inventory = @{
@"Mercedes-Benz SLK250" : @(13),
@"BMW M3 Coupe" : @(self.BMWM3CoupeInventory.count),
@"Last Updated" : @"Jul 21, 2016",
@"Next Update" : self.nextInventoryUpdateString
};

Section 16.4: Creating using dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:

NSDictionary *inventory = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
[NSNumber numberWithInt:13], @"Mercedes-Benz SLK250",
[NSNumber numberWithInt:22], @"Mercedes-Benz E350",
[NSNumber numberWithInt:19], @"BMW M3 Coupe",
[NSNumber numberWithInt:16], @"BMW X6",
nil];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 48

nil must be passed as the last parameter as a sentinel signifying the end.

It's important to remember that when instantiating dictionaries this way the values go first and the keys second. In
the example above the strings are the keys and the numbers are the values. The method's name reflects this too:
dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys. While this is not incorrect, the more modern way of instantiating dictionaries (with
literals) is preferred.

Section 16.5: NSDictionary to NSArray

NSDictionary *myDictionary = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:@"value1", @"key1",
@"value2", @"key2", nil];
NSArray *copiedArray = myDictionary.copy;

Get keys:

NSArray *keys = [myDictionary allKeys];

Get values:

NSArray *values = [myDictionary allValues];

Section 16.6: NSDictionary to NSData

NSDictionary *myDictionary = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:@"value1", @"key1",
@"value2", @"key2", nil];
NSData *myData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:myDictionary];

Reserve path:

NSDictionary *myDictionary = (NSDictionary*) [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:myData];

Section 16.7: NSDictionary to JSON

NSDictionary *myDictionary = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:@"value1", @"key1",
@"value2", @"key2", nil];

NSMutableDictionary *mutableDictionary = [myDictionary mutableCopy];

NSData *data = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:myDictionary
options:NSJSONWritingPrettyPrinted error:nil];
NSString *jsonString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

Section 16.8: Creating using plists

NSString *pathToPlist = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"plistName"
ofType:@"plist"];
NSDictionary *plistDict = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:pathToPlist];

Section 16.9: Setting a Value in NSDictionary

There are multiple ways to set a key's object in an NSDictionary, corresponding to the ways you get a value. For
instance, to add a Lamborghini to a list of cars

Standard

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 49

[cars setObject:lamborghini forKey:@"Lamborghini"];

Just like any other object, call the method of NSDictionary that sets an object of a key, objectForKey:. Be careful
not to confuse this with setValue:forKey:; that's for a completely different thing, Key Value Coding

Shorthand
cars[@"Lamborghini"] = lamborghini;

This is the syntax that you use for dictionaries in most other languages, such as C#, Java, and JavaScript. It's much
more convenient than the standard syntax, and arguably more readable (especially if you code in these other
languages), but of course, it isn't standard. It's also only available in newer versions of Objective-C

Section 16.10: Getting a Value from NSDictionary

There are multiple ways to get an object from an NSDictionary with a key. For instance, to get a lamborghini from a
list of cars

Standard
Car * lamborghini = [cars objectForKey:@"Lamborghini"];

Just like any other object, call the method of NSDictionary that gives you an object for a key, objectForKey:. Be
careful not to confuse this with valueForKey:; that's for a completely different thing, Key Value Coding

Shorthand
Car * lamborghini = cars[@"Lamborghini"];

This is the syntax that you use for dictionaries in most other languages, such as C#, Java, and JavaScript. It's much
more convenient than the standard syntax, and arguably more readable (especially if you code in these other
languages), but of course, it isn't standard. It's also only available in newer versions of Objective-C

Section 16.11: Check if NSDictionary already has a key or not

Objective-C:

//this is the dictionary you start with.

NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:@"name1", @"Sam",@"name2",
@"Sanju",nil];

//check if the dictionary contains the key you are going to modify. In this example, @"Sam"
if (dict[@"name1"] != nil) {
//there is an entry for Key name1
}
else {
//There is no entry for name1
}

Section 16.12: Block Based Enumeration

Enumerating dictionaries allows you to run a block of code on each dictionary key-value pair using the method
enumerateKeysAndObjectsUsingBlock:(void (^)(id key, id obj, BOOL *stop))block

Example:

NSDictionary stockSymbolsDictionary = @{

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 50

 @"AAPL": @"Apple",
@"GOOGL": @"Alphabet",
@"MSFT": @"Microsoft",
@"AMZN": @"Amazon"
};
NSLog(@"Printing contents of dictionary via enumeration");
[stockSymbolsDictionary enumerateKeysAndObjectsUsingBlock:^(id key, id obj, BOOL *stop) {
NSLog(@"Key: %@, Value: %@", key, obj);
}];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 51

Chapter 17: NSMutableDictionary
objects keys
An array containing the values for the new CellAn array containing the keys for the new dictionary. Each key is
dictionary. copied and the copy is added to the dictionary.

Section 17.1: NSMutableDictionary Example

+ dictionaryWithCapacity:

Creates and returns a mutable dictionary, initially giving it enough allocated memory to hold a given number of
entries.

NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithCapacity:1];

NSLog(@"%@",dict);

- init

Initializes a newly allocated mutable dictionary.

NSMutableDictionary *dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];

NSLog(@"%@",dict);

+ dictionaryWithSharedKeySet:

Creates a mutable dictionary which is optimized for dealing with a known set of keys.

id sharedKeySet = [NSDictionary sharedKeySetForKeys:@[@"key1", @"key2"]]; // returns NSSharedKeySet

NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithSharedKeySet:sharedKeySet];
dict[@"key1"] = @"Easy";
dict[@"key2"] = @"Tutorials";
//We can an object that is not in the shared keyset
dict[@"key3"] = @"Website";
NSLog(@"%@",dict);

Output

{
key1 = Easy;
key2 = Tutorials;
key3 = Website;
}

Adding Entries to a Mutable Dictionary

- setObject:forKey:

Adds a given key-value pair to the dictionary.

NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];

[dict setObject:@"Easy" forKey:@"Key1"];
NSLog(@"%@",dict);

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 52

 Output

{
Key1 = Eezy;
}

- setObject:forKeyedSubscript:

Adds a given key-value pair to the dictionary.

NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];

[dict setObject:@"Easy" forKeyedSubscript:@"Key1"];
NSLog(@"%@",dict);

Output

{
Key1 = Easy;
}

Section 17.2: Removing Entries From a Mutable Dictionary

- removeObjectForKey:

Removes a given key and its associated value from the dictionary.

NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary

dictionaryWithDictionary:@{@"key1":@"Easy",@"key2": @"Tutorials"}];
[dict removeObjectForKey:@"key1"];
NSLog(@"%@",dict);

OUTPUT

{
key2 = Tutorials;
}

- removeAllObjects

Empties the dictionary of its entries.

NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary

dictionaryWithDictionary:@{@"key1":@"Eezy",@"key2": @"Tutorials"}];
[dict removeAllObjects];
NSLog(@"%@",dict);

OUTPUT

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 53

{
}

- removeObjectsForKeys:

Removes from the dictionary entries specified by elements in a given array.

NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary

dictionaryWithDictionary:@{@"key1":@"Easy",@"key2": @"Tutorials"}];
[dict removeObjectsForKeys:@[@"key1"]];
NSLog(@"%@",dict);

OUTPUT

{
key2 = Tutorials;
}

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 54

Chapter 18: NSDate
Section 18.1: Convert NSDate that is composed from hour and
minute (only) to a full NSDate
There are many cases when one has created an NSDate from only an hour and minute format, i.e: 08:12

The downside for this situation is that your NSDate is almost completely "naked" and what you need to do is to
create: day, month, year, second and time zone in order to this object to "play along" with other NSDate types.

For the sake of the example let's say that hourAndMinute is the NSDate type that is composed from hour and
minute format:

NSDateComponents *hourAndMintuteComponents = [calendar components:NSCalendarUnitHour |

NSCalendarUnitMinute
fromDate:hourAndMinute];
NSDateComponents *componentsOfDate = [[NSCalendar currentCalendar] components:NSCalendarUnitDay |
NSCalendarUnitMonth | NSCalendarUnitYear
fromDate:[NSDate date]];

NSDateComponents *components = [[NSDateComponents alloc] init];

[components setDay: componentsOfDate.day];
[components setMonth: componentsOfDate.month];
[components setYear: componentsOfDate.year];
[components setHour: [hourAndMintuteComponents hour]];
[components setMinute: [hourAndMintuteComponents minute]];
[components setSecond: 0];
[calendar setTimeZone: [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone]];

NSDate *yourFullNSDateObject = [calendar dateFromComponents:components];

Now your object is the total opposite of being "naked".

Section 18.2: Converting NSDate to NSString

If ww have NSDate object, and we want to convert it into NSString. There are different types of Date strings. How
we can do that?, It is very simple. Just 3 steps.

1. Create NSDateFormatter Object

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];

2. Set the date format in which you want your string.

dateFormatter.dateFormat = @"yyyy-MM-dd 'at' HH:mm";

3. Now, get the formatted string

NSDate *date = [NSDate date]; // your NSDate object

NSString *dateString = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:date];

This will give output something like this: 2001-01-02 at 13:00

Note:

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 55

Creating an NSDateFormatter instance is an expensive operation, so it is recommended to create it once and reuse
when possible.

Section 18.3: Creating an NSDate

The NSDate class provides methods for creating NSDate objects corresponding to a given date and time. An NSDate
can be initialized using the designated initializer, which:

Returns an NSDate object initialized relative to 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 2001 by a given number of
seconds.

NSDate *date = [[NSDate alloc] initWithTimeIntervalSinceReferenceDate:100.0];

NSDate also provides an easy way to create an NSDate equal to the current date and time:

NSDate *now = [NSDate date];

It is also possible to create an NSDate a given amount of seconds from the current date and time:

NSDate *tenSecondsFromNow = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:10.0];

Section 18.4: Date Comparison

There are 4 methods for comparing NSDates in Objective-C:

- (BOOL)isEqualToDate:(NSDate *)anotherDate
- (NSDate *)earlierDate:(NSDate *)anotherDate
- (NSDate *)laterDate:(NSDate *)anotherDate
- (NSComparisonResult)compare:(NSDate *)anotherDate

Consider the following example using 2 dates, NSDate date1 = July 7, 2016 and NSDate date2 = July 2, 2016:

NSDateComponents *comps1 = [[NSDateComponents alloc]init];

comps.year = 2016;
comps.month = 7;
comps.day = 7;

NSDateComponents *comps2 = [[NSDateComponents alloc]init];

comps.year = 2016;
comps.month = 7;
comps.day = 2;

NSDate* date1 = [calendar dateFromComponents:comps1]; //Initialized as July 7, 2016

NSDate* date2 = [calendar dateFromComponents:comps2]; //Initialized as July 2, 2016

Now that the NSDates are created, they can be compared:

if ([date1 isEqualToDate:date2]) {
//Here it returns false, as both dates are not equal
}

We can also use the earlierDate: and laterDate: methods of the NSDate class:

NSDate *earlierDate = [date1 earlierDate:date2];//Returns the earlier of 2 dates. Here earlierDate

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 56

will equal date2.
NSDate *laterDate = [date1 laterDate:date2];//Returns the later of 2 dates. Here laterDate will
equal date1.

Lastly, we can use NSDate's compare: method:

NSComparisonResult result = [date1 compare:date2];

if (result == NSOrderedAscending) {
//Fails
//Comes here if date1 is earlier than date2. In our case it will not come here.
}else if (result == NSOrderedSame){
//Fails
//Comes here if date1 is the same as date2. In our case it will not come here.
}else{//NSOrderedDescending

//Succeeds
//Comes here if date1 is later than date2. In our case it will come here
}

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 57

Chapter 19: NSURL
Section 19.1: Create
From NSString:

NSString *urlString = @"https://www.stackoverflow.com";

NSURL *myUrl = [NSURL URLWithString: urlString];

You can also use the following methods:

- initWithString:
+ URLWithString:relativeToURL:
- initWithString:relativeToURL:
+ fileURLWithPath:isDirectory:
- initFileURLWithPath:isDirectory:
+ fileURLWithPath:
- initFileURLWithPath:
Designated Initializer
+ fileURLWithPathComponents:
+ URLByResolvingAliasFileAtURL:options:error:
+ URLByResolvingBookmarkData:options:relativeToURL:bookmarkDataIsStale:error:
- initByResolvingBookmarkData:options:relativeToURL:bookmarkDataIsStale:error:
+ fileURLWithFileSystemRepresentation:isDirectory:relativeToURL:
- getFileSystemRepresentation:maxLength:
- initFileURLWithFileSystemRepresentation:isDirectory:relativeToURL:

Section 19.2: Compare NSURL

NSString *urlString = @"https://www.stackoverflow.com";

NSURL *myUrl = [NSURL URLWithString: urlString];

NSURL *myUrl2 = [NSURL URLWithString: urlString];

if ([myUrl isEqual:myUrl2]) return YES;

Section 19.3: Modifying and Converting a File URL with

removing and appending path
1. URLByDeletingPathExtension:

If the receiver represents the root path, this property contains a copy of the original URL. If the URL has multiple
path extensions, only the last one is removed.

2. URLByAppendingPathExtension:

Returns a new URL made by appending a path extension to the original URL.

Example:

NSUInteger count = 0;
NSString *filePath = nil;
do {
NSString *extension = ( NSString *)UTTypeCopyPreferredTagWithClass((
CFStringRef)AVFileTypeQuickTimeMovie, kUTTagClassFilenameExtension);
NSString *fileNameNoExtension = [[asset.defaultRepresentation.url

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 58

URLByDeletingPathExtension] lastPathComponent];//Delete is used
NSString *fileName = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@-%@-%u",fileNameNoExtension ,
AVAssetExportPresetLowQuality, count];
filePath = NSTemporaryDirectory();
filePath = [filePath stringByAppendingPathComponent:fileName];//Appending is used
filePath = [filePath stringByAppendingPathExtension:extension];
count++;

} while ([[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:filePath]);

NSURL *outputURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:filePath];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 59

Chapter 20: NSUrl send a post request
Section 20.1: Simple POST request
// Create the request.
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL
URLWithString:@"http://google.com"]];

// Specify that it will be a POST request

request.HTTPMethod = @"POST";

// This is how we set header fields

[request setValue:@"application/xml; charset=utf-8" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];

// Convert your data and set your request's HTTPBody property

NSString *stringData = @"some data";
NSData *requestBodyData = [stringData dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
request.HTTPBody = requestBodyData;

// Create url connection and fire request

NSURLConnection *conn = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:request delegate:self];

Section 20.2: Simple Post Request With Timeout

// Create the request.
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL
URLWithString:@"http://google.com"]];

// Specify that it will be a POST request

request.HTTPMethod = @"POST";

// Setting a timeout
request.timeoutInterval = 20.0;
// This is how we set header fields
[request setValue:@"application/xml; charset=utf-8" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];

// Convert your data and set your request's HTTPBody property

NSString *stringData = @"some data";
NSData *requestBodyData = [stringData dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
request.HTTPBody = requestBodyData;

// Create url connection and fire request

NSURLConnection *conn = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:request delegate:self];

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Chapter 21: NSData
Section 21.1: Create
From NSString:

NSString *str = @"Hello world";

NSData *data = [str dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

From Int:

int i = 1;
NSData *data = [NSData dataWithBytes: &i length: sizeof(i)];

You can also use the following methods:

+ dataWithContentsOfURL:
+ dataWithContentsOfURL:options:error:
+ dataWithData:
- initWithBase64EncodedData:options:
- initWithBase64EncodedString:options:
- initWithBase64Encoding:
- initWithBytesNoCopy:length:
- initWithBytesNoCopy:length:deallocator:
- initWithBytesNoCopy:length:freeWhenDone:
- initWithContentsOfFile:
- initWithContentsOfFile:options:error:
- initWithContentsOfMappedFile:
- initWithContentsOfURL:
- initWithContentsOfURL:options:error:
- initWithData:

Section 21.2: NSData and Hexadecimal String

Get NSData from Hexadecimal String

+ (NSData *)dataFromHexString:(NSString *)string

{
string = [string lowercaseString];
NSMutableData *data= [NSMutableData new];
unsigned char whole_byte;
char byte_chars[3] = {'\0','\0','\0'};
int i = 0;
int length = (int) string.length;
while (i < length-1) {
char c = [string characterAtIndex:i++];
if (c < '0' || (c > '9' && c < 'a') || c > 'f')
continue;
byte_chars[0] = c;
byte_chars[1] = [string characterAtIndex:i++];
whole_byte = strtol(byte_chars, NULL, 16);
[data appendBytes:&whole_byte length:1];
}
return data;
}

Get Hexadecimal String from data:

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 61

+ (NSString *)hexStringForData:(NSData *)data
{
if (data == nil) {
return nil;
}

NSMutableString *hexString = [NSMutableString string];

const unsigned char *p = [data bytes];

for (int i=0; i < [data length]; i++) {

[hexString appendFormat:@"%02x", *p++];
}

return hexString;
}

Section 21.3: Get NSData length

NSString *filePath = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] pathForRessorce: @"data" ofType:@"txt"];
NSData *data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
int len = [data length];

Section 21.4: Encoding and decoding a string using NSData

Base64
Encoding

//Create a Base64 Encoded NSString Object

NSData *nsdata = [@"iOS Developer Tips encoded in Base64" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

// Get NSString from NSData object in Base64

NSString *base64Encoded = [nsdata base64EncodedStringWithOptions:0];
// Print the Base64 encoded string
NSLog(@"Encoded: %@", base64Encoded);

Decoding:

// NSData from the Base64 encoded str

NSData *nsdataFromBase64String = [[NSData alloc]initWithBase64EncodedString:base64Encoded
options:0];

// Decoded NSString from the NSData

NSString *base64Decoded = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:nsdataFromBase64String
encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(@"Decoded: %@", base64Decoded);

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 62

Chapter 22: NSPredicate
Section 22.1: Filter By Name
NSArray *array = @[
@{
@"id": @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB71",
@"title": @"Jackie Chan Strike Movie",
@"url": @"http://abc.com/playback.m3u8",
@"thumbnailURL": @"http://abc.com/thumbnail.png",
@"isMovie" : @1
},
@{
@"id": @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB72",
@"title": @"Sherlock homes",
@"url": @"http://abc.com/playback.m3u8",
@"thumbnailURL": @"http://abc.com/thumbnail.png",
@"isMovie" : @0
},
@{
@"id": @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB73",
@"title": @"Titanic",
@"url": @"http://abc.com/playback.m3u8",
@"thumbnailURL": @"http://abc.com/thumbnail.png",
@"isMovie" : @1
},
@{
@"id": @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB74",
@"title": @"Star Wars",
@"url": @"http://abc.com/playback.m3u8",
@"thumbnailURL": @"http://abc.com/thumbnail.png",
@"isMovie" : @1
},
@{
@"id": @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB75",
@"title": @"Pokemon",
@"url": @"http://abc.com/playback.m3u8",
@"thumbnailURL": @"http://abc.com/thumbnail.png",
@"isMovie" : @0
},
@{
@"id": @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB76",
@"title": @"Avatar",
@"url": @"http://abc.com/playback.m3u8",
@"thumbnailURL": @"http://abc.com/thumbnail.png",
@"isMovie" : @1
},
@{
@"id": @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB77",
@"title": @"Popey",
@"url": @"http://abc.com/playback.m3u8",
@"thumbnailURL": @"http://abc.com/thumbnail.png",
@"isMovie" : @1
},
@{
@"id": @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB78",
@"title": @"Tom and Jerry",
@"url": @"http://abc.com/playback.m3u8",
@"thumbnailURL": @"http://abc.com/thumbnail.png",
@"isMovie" : @1

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 63

 },
@{
@"id": @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB79",
@"title": @"The wolf",
@"url": @"http://abc.com/playback.m3u8",
@"thumbnailURL": @"http://abc.com/thumbnail.png",
@"isMovie" : @1
}
];

// *** Case Insensitive comparison with exact title match ***

NSPredicate *filterByNameCIS = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self.title LIKE[cd] %@",@"Tom and
Jerry"];
NSLog(@"Filter By Name(CIS) : %@",[array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:filterByNameCIS]);

Section 22.2: Find movies except given ids

// *** Find movies except given ids ***
NSPredicate *filterByNotInIds = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"NOT (self.id IN
%@)",@[@"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB79", @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB76"]];
NSLog(@"Filter movies except given Ids : %@",[array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:filterByNotInIds]);

Section 22.3: Find all the objects which is of type movie

// *** Find all the objects which is of type movie, Both the syntax are valid ***
NSPredicate *filterByMovieType = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self.isMovie = %@",@1];
// OR
//NSPredicate *filterByMovieType = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self.isMovie = %@",[NSNumber
numberWithBool:YES]];
NSLog(@"Filter By Movie Type : %@",[array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:filterByMovieType]);

Section 22.4: Find Distinct object ids of array

// *** Find Distinct object ids of array ***
NSLog(@"Distinct id : %@",[array valueForKeyPath:@"@distinctUnionOfObjects.id"]);

Section 22.5: Find movies with specific ids

// *** Find movies with specific ids ***
NSPredicate *filterByIds = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self.id IN
%@",@[@"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB79", @"7CDF6D22-8D36-49C2-84FE-E31EECCECB76"]];
NSLog(@"Filter By Ids : %@",[array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:filterByIds]);

Section 22.6: Case Insensitive comparison with exact title

match
// *** Case Insensitive comparison with exact title match ***
NSPredicate *filterByNameCIS = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self.title LIKE[cd] %@",@"Tom and
Jerry"];
NSLog(@"Filter By Name(CIS) : %@",[array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:filterByNameCIS]);

Section 22.7: Case sensitive with exact title match

// *** Case sensitive with exact title match ***
NSPredicate *filterByNameCS = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self.title = %@",@"Tom and

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 64

Jerry"];
NSLog(@"Filter By Name(CS) : %@",[array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:filterByNameCS]);

Section 22.8: Case Insensitive comparison with matching

subset
// *** Case Insensitive comparison with matching subset ***
NSPredicate *filterByName = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self.title CONTAINS[cd] %@",@"Tom"];
NSLog(@"Filter By Containing Name : %@",[array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:filterByName]);

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 65

Chapter 23: NSRegularExpression
Section 23.1: Check whether a string matches a pattern
NSString *testString1 = @"(555) 123-5678";
NSString *testString2 = @"not a phone number";

NSError *error = nil;

NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:@"^\\(\\d{3}\\)
\\d{3}\\-\\d{4}$"

options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive error:&error];

NSInteger result1 = [regex numberOfMatchesInString:testString1 options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0,

testString1.length)];
NSInteger result2 = [regex numberOfMatchesInString:testString2 options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0,
testString2.length)];

NSLog(@"Is string 1 a phone number? %@", result1 > 0 ? @"YES" : @"NO");

NSLog(@"Is string 2 a phone number? %@", result2 > 0 ? @"YES" : @"NO");

The output will show that the first string is a phone number and the second one isn't.

Section 23.2: Find all the numbers in a string

NSString *testString = @"There are 42 sheep and 8672 cows.";
NSError *error = nil;
NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:@"(\\d+)"

options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive
error:&error];

NSArray *matches = [regex matchesInString:testString

options:0
range:NSMakeRange(0, testString.length)];

for (NSTextCheckingResult *matchResult in matches) {

NSString* match = [testString substringWithRange:matchResult.range];
NSLog(@"match: %@", match);
}

The output will be match: 42 and match: 8672.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 66

Chapter 24: NSJSONSerialization
Operator Description
data A data object containing JSON data
opt Options for reading the JSON data and creating the Foundation objects.
error If an error occurs, upon return contains an NSError object that describes the problem.

Section 24.1: JSON Parsing using NSJSONSerialization

Objective-C
NSError *e = nil;
NSString *jsonString = @"[{\"id\": \"1\", \"name\":\"sam\"}]";
NSData *data = [jsonString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

NSArray *jsonArray = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData: data options:

NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error: &e];

if (!jsonArray) {
NSLog(@"Error parsing JSON: %@", e);
} else {
for(NSDictionary *item in jsonArray) {
NSLog(@"Item: %@", item);
}
}

Output:

Item: {
id = 1;
name = sam;
}

Example 2: Using contents of url:

//Parsing:

NSData *data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:@“URL HERE”];

NSError *error;
NSDictionary *json = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:kNilOptions
error:&error];
NSLog(@“json :%@”,json);

Sample response:

json: {
MESSAGE = "Test Message";
RESPONSE =(
{
email = "[email protected]";
id = 15;
phone = 1234567890;
name = Staffy;
}
);
STATUS = SUCCESS;
}

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 67

 NSMutableDictionary *response = [[[json valueForKey:@"RESPONSE"] objectAtIndex:0]mutableCopy];
NSString *nameStr = [response valueForKey:@"name"];
NSString *emailIdStr = [response valueForKey:@"email"];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 68

Chapter 25: NSCalendar
Section 25.1: System Locale Information
+currentCalendar returns the logical calendar for the current user.

NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];

NSLog(@"%@",calendar);

+autoupdatingCurrentCalendar returns the current logical calendar for the current user.

NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar autoupdatingCurrentCalendar];

NSLog(@"%@",calendar);

Section 25.2: Initializing a Calendar

- initWithCalendarIdentifier: Initializes a newly-allocated NSCalendar object for the calendar specified by a
given identifier.

NSCalendar *calender = [[NSCalendar alloc]initWithCalendarIdentifier:@"gregorian"];

NSLog(@"%@",calender);

- setFirstWeekday: Sets the index of the first weekday for the receiver.

NSCalendar *calender = [NSCalendar autoupdatingCurrentCalendar];

[calender setFirstWeekday:1];
NSLog(@"%d",[calender firstWeekday]);

- setLocale: Sets the locale for the receiver.

NSCalendar *calender = [NSCalendar autoupdatingCurrentCalendar];

[calender setLocale:[NSLocale currentLocale]];
NSLog(@"%@",[calender locale]);

- setMinimumDaysInFirstWeek: Sets the minimum number of days in the first week of the receiver.

NSCalendar *calender = [NSCalendar autoupdatingCurrentCalendar];

[calender setMinimumDaysInFirstWeek:7];
NSLog(@"%d",[calender minimumDaysInFirstWeek]);

- setTimeZone: Sets the time zone for the receiver.

NSCalendar *calender = [NSCalendar autoupdatingCurrentCalendar];

[calender setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneForSecondsFromGMT:0]];
NSLog(@"%@",[calender timeZone]);

Section 25.3: Calendrical Calculations

- components:fromDate: Returns a NSDateComponents object containing a given date decomposed into specified
components

NSCalendar *calender = [NSCalendar autoupdatingCurrentCalendar];

[calender setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneForSecondsFromGMT:0]];
NSLog(@"%@",[calender components:NSCalendarUnitDay fromDate:[NSDate date]]);

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 69

NSLog(@"%@",[calender components:NSCalendarUnitYear fromDate:[NSDate date]]);
NSLog(@"%@",[calender components:NSCalendarUnitMonth fromDate:[NSDate date]]);

- components:fromDate:toDate:options: Returns, as an NSDateComponents object using specified components,

the difference between two supplied dates.

NSCalendar *calender = [NSCalendar autoupdatingCurrentCalendar];

[calender setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneForSecondsFromGMT:0]];
NSLog(@"%@",[calender components:NSCalendarUnitYear fromDate:[NSDate
dateWithTimeIntervalSince1970:0] toDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:18000]
options:NSCalendarWrapComponents]);

- dateByAddingComponents:toDate:options: Returns a new NSDate object representing the absolute time

calculated by adding given components to a given date.

NSCalendar *calender = [NSCalendar autoupdatingCurrentCalendar];

NSDateComponents *dateComponent = [[NSDateComponents alloc]init];
[dateComponent setYear:10];
NSLog(@"%@",[calender dateByAddingComponents:dateComponent toDate:[NSDate
dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:0] options:NSCalendarWrapComponents] );

- dateFromComponents: Returns a new NSDate object representing the absolute time calculated from given
components.

NSCalendar *calender = [NSCalendar autoupdatingCurrentCalendar];

NSDateComponents *dateComponent = [[NSDateComponents alloc]init];
[dateComponent setYear:2020];
NSLog(@"%@",[calender dateFromComponents:dateComponent]);

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 70

Chapter 26: NSAttributedString
Section 26.1: Using Enumerating over Attributes in a String
and underline part of string
NSMutableDictionary *attributesDictionary = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
[attributesDictionary setObject:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:14] forKey:NSFontAttributeName];
//[attributesDictionary setObject:[UIColor redColor] forKey:NSForegroundColorAttributeName];
NSMutableAttributedString *attributedString = [[NSMutableAttributedString
alloc]initWithString:@"Google www.google.com link" attributes:attributesDictionary];

[attributedString enumerateAttribute:(NSString *) NSFontAttributeName

inRange:NSMakeRange(0, [attributedString length])
options:NSAttributedStringEnumerationLongestEffectiveRangeNotRequired
usingBlock:^(id value, NSRange range, BOOL *stop) {
NSLog(@"Attribute: %@, %@", value, NSStringFromRange(range));
}];

NSMutableAttributedString *attributedStr = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc]

initWithString:@"www.google.com "];

[attributedString addAttribute:NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName
value:[NSNumber numberWithInt:NSUnderlineStyleDouble]
range:NSMakeRange(7, attributedStr.length)];

[attributedString addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName
value:[UIColor blueColor]
range:NSMakeRange(6,attributedStr.length)];

_attriLbl.attributedText = attributedString;//_attriLbl (of type UILabel) added in storyboard

Output:

Section 26.2: Creating a string that has custom kerning (letter

spacing) editshare
NSAttributedString (and its mutable sibling NSMutableAttributedString) allows you to create strings that are
complex in their appearance to the user.

A common application is to use this to display a string and adding custom kerning / letter-spacing.

This would be achieved as follows (where label is a UILabel), giving a different kerning for the word "kerning"

NSMutableAttributedString *attributedString;
attributedString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"Apply kerning"];
[attributedString addAttribute:NSKernAttributeName value:@5 range:NSMakeRange(6, 7)];
[label setAttributedText:attributedString];

Section 26.3: Create a string with text struck through

NSMutableAttributedString *attributeString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc]
initWithString:@"Your String here"];
[attributeString addAttribute:NSStrikethroughStyleAttributeName

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 71

 value:@2
range:NSMakeRange(0, [attributeString length])];

Section 26.4: How you create a tri-color attributed string

NSMutableAttributedString * string = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc]
initWithString:@"firstsecondthird"];
[string addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor redColor]
range:NSMakeRange(0,5)];
[string addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor greenColor]
range:NSMakeRange(5,6)];
[string addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor blueColor]
range:NSMakeRange(11,5)];

Range : start to end string

Here we have firstsecondthird string so in first we have set range (0,5) so from starting first character to fifth
character it will display in green text color.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 72

Chapter 27: NSTimer
Section 27.1: Storing information in the Timer
When creating a timer, you can set the userInfo parameter to include information that you want to pass to the
function you call with the timer.

By taking a timer as a parameter in said function, you can access the userInfo property.

NSDictionary *dictionary = @{
@"Message" : @"Hello, world!"
}; //this dictionary contains a message
[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:5.0
target:self
selector:@selector(doSomething)
userInfo:dictionary
repeats:NO]; //the timer contains the dictionary and later calls the function

...

- (void) doSomething:(NSTimer*)timer{
//the function retrieves the message from the timer
NSLog("%@", timer.userInfo["Message"]);
}

Section 27.2: Creating a Timer

This will create a timer to call the doSomething method on self in 5.0 seconds.

[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:5.0
target:self
selector:@selector(doSomething)
userInfo:nil
repeats:NO];

Setting the repeats parameter to false/NO indicates that we want the timer to fire only once. If we set this to
true/YES, it would fire every five seconds until manually invalidated.

Section 27.3: Invalidating a timer

[timer invalidate];
timer = nil;

This will stop the timer from firing. Must be called from the thread the timer was created in, see Apple's notes:

You must send this message from the thread on which the timer was installed. If you send this message
from another thread, the input source associated with the timer may not be removed from its run loop,
which could prevent the thread from exiting properly.

Setting nil will help you next to check whether it's running or not.

if(timer) {
[timer invalidate];
timer = nil;

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 73

}

//Now set a timer again.

Section 27.4: Manually firing a timer

[timer fire];

Calling the fire method causes an NSTimer to perform the task it would have usually performed on a schedule.

In a non-repeating timer, this will automatically invalidate the timer. That is, calling fire before the time interval is
up will result in only one invocation.

In a repeating timer, this will simply invoke the action without interrupting the usual schedule.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 74

Chapter 28: NSObject
NSObject is the root class of Cocoa, however the Objective-C language itself does not define any root classes at all
its define by Cocoa, Apple's Framework. This root class of most Objective-C class hierarchies, from which subclasses
inherit a basic interface to the runtime system and the ability to behave as Objective-C objects.

This class have all basic property of Objective'C class object like:

self.

class (name of the class).

superclass (superclass of current class).

Section 28.1: NSObject

@interface NSString : NSObject (NSObject is a base class of NSString class).

You can use below methods for allocation of string class:

- (instancetype)init

+ (instancetype)new

+ (instancetype)alloc

For Copy any object :

- (id)copy;

- (id)mutableCopy;

For compare objects :

- (BOOL)isEqual:(id)object

To get superclass of current class :

superclass

To check which kind of class is this ?

- (BOOL)isKindOfClass:(Class)aClass

Some property of NON-ARC classes:

- (instancetype)retain OBJC_ARC_UNAVAILABLE;

- (oneway void)release OBJC_ARC_UNAVAILABLE;

- (instancetype)autorelease OBJC_ARC_UNAVAILABLE;

- (NSUInteger)retainCount

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 75

Chapter 29: NSSortDescriptor
Section 29.1: Sorted by combinations of NSSortDescriptor
NSArray *aryFName = @[ @"Alice", @"Bob", @"Charlie", @"Quentin" ];
NSArray *aryLName = @[ @"Smith", @"Jones", @"Smith", @"Alberts" ];
NSArray *aryAge = @[ @24, @27, @33, @31 ];

//Create a Custom class with properties for firstName & lastName of type NSString *,
//and age, which is an NSUInteger.

NSMutableArray *aryPerson = [NSMutableArray array];

[firstNames enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
Person *person = [[Person alloc] init];
person.firstName = [aryFName objectAtIndex:idx];
person.lastName = [aryLName objectAtIndex:idx];
person.age = [aryAge objectAtIndex:idx];
[aryPerson addObject:person];
}];

NSSortDescriptor *firstNameSortDescriptor = [NSSortDescriptor sortDescriptorWithKey:@"firstName"

ascending:YES
selector:@selector(localizedStandardCompare:)];

NSSortDescriptor *lastNameSortDescriptor = [NSSortDescriptor sortDescriptorWithKey:@"lastName"

ascending:YES
selector:@selector(localizedStandardCompare:)];

NSSortDescriptor *ageSortDescriptor = [NSSortDescriptor sortDescriptorWithKey:@"age"

ascending:NO];

NSLog(@"By age: %@", [aryPerson sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:@[ageSortDescriptor]]);

// "Charlie Smith", "Quentin Alberts", "Bob Jones", "Alice Smith"

NSLog(@"By first name: %@", [aryPerson sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:@[firstNameSortDescriptor]]);

// "Alice Smith", "Bob Jones", "Charlie Smith", "Quentin Alberts"

NSLog(@"By last name, first name: %@", [aryPerson

sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:@[lastNameSortDescriptor, firstNameSortDescriptor]]);
// "Quentin Alberts", "Bob Jones", "Alice Smith", "Charlie Smith"

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 76

Chapter 30: NSTextAttachment
Section 30.1: NSTextAttachment Example
NSTextAttachment *attachment = [[NSTextAttachment alloc] init];
attachment.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"imageName"];
attachment.bounds = CGRectMake(0, 0, 35, 35);
NSAttributedString *attachmentString = [NSAttributedString
attributedStringWithAttachment:attachment];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 77

Chapter 31: NSCache
Section 31.1: NSCache
You use it the same way you would use NSMutableDictionary. The difference is that when NSCache detects
excessive memory pressure (i.e. it's caching too many values) it will release some of those values to make room.

If you can recreate those values at runtime (by downloading from the Internet, by doing calculations, whatever)
then NSCache may suit your needs. If the data cannot be recreated (e.g. it's user input, it is time-sensitive, etc.) then
you should not store it in an NSCache because it will be destroyed there.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 78

Chapter 32: NSUserDefaults
Section 32.1: Simple example
For example:

FOR SAVING:

NSUserDefaults *prefs = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];

// saving an NSString
[prefs setObject:txtUsername.text forKey:@"userName"];
[prefs setObject:txtPassword.text forKey:@"password"];

[prefs synchronize];

FOR RETRIEVING

NSUserDefaults *prefs = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];

// getting an NSString
NSString *savedUsername = [prefs stringForKey:@"userName"];
NSString *savedPassword = [prefs stringForKey:@"password"];

Section 32.2: Clear NSUserDefaults

NSString *appDomain = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundleIdentifier];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] removePersistentDomainForName:appDomain];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 79

Chapter 33: Subscripting
Section 33.1: Subscripts with NSArray
Subscripts can be used to simplify retrieving and setting elements in an array. Given the following array

NSArray *fruit = @[@"Apples", @"Bananas", @"Cherries"];

This line

[fruit objectAtIndex: 1];

Can be replaced by

fruit[1];

They can also be used to set an element in a mutable array.

NSMutableArray *fruit = [@[@"Apples", @"Bananas", @"Cherries"] mutableCopy];

fruit[1] = @"Blueberries";
NSLog(@"%@", fruit[1]); //Blueberries

If the index of the subscript equals the count of the array, the element will be appended to the array.

Repeated subscripts may be used to access elements of nested arrays.

NSArray *fruit = @[@"Apples", @"Bananas", @"Cherries"];

NSArray *vegetables = @[@"Avocado", @"Beans", @"Carrots"];
NSArray *produce = @[fruit, vegetables];

NSLog(@"%@", produce[0][1]); //Bananas

Section 33.2: Custom Subscripting

You can add subscripting to your own classes by implementing the required methods.

For indexed subscripting (like arrays):

- (id)objectAtIndexedSubscript:(NSUInteger)idx
- (void)setObject:(id)obj atIndexedSubscript:(NSUInteger)idx

For keyed subscripting (like dictionaries):

- (id)objectForKeyedSubscript:(id)key
- (void)setObject:(id)obj forKeyedSubscript:(id <NSCopying>)key

Section 33.3: Subscripts with NSDictionary

Subscripts can also be used with NSDictionary and NSMutableDictionary. The following code:

NSMutableDictionary *myDictionary = [@{@"Foo": @"Bar"} mutableCopy];

[myDictionary setObject:@"Baz" forKey:@"Foo"];
NSLog(@"%@", [myDictionary objectForKey:@"Foo"]); // Baz

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 80

Can be shortened to:

NSMutableDictionary *myDictionary = [@{@"Foo": @"Bar"} mutableCopy];

myDictionary[@"Foo"] = @"Baz";
NSLog(@"%@", myDictionary[@"Foo"]); // Baz

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 81

Chapter 34: Low-level Runtime
Environment
Section 34.1: Augmenting methods using Method Swizzling
The Objective-C runtime allows you to change the implementation of a method at runtime. This is called method
swizzling and is often used to exchange the implementations of two methods. For example, if the methods foo and
bar are exchanged, sending the message foo will now execute the implementation of bar and vice versa.

This technique can be used to augment or "patch" existing methods which you cannot edit directly, such as
methods of system-provided classes.

In the following example, the -[NSUserDefaults synchronize] method is augmented to print the execution time of
the original implementation.

IMPORTANT: Many people try to do swizzling using method_exchangeImplementations. However, this approach is
dangerous if you need to call the method you're replacing, because you'll be calling it using a different selector than
it is expecting to receive. As a result, your code can break in strange and unexpected ways—particularly if multiple
parties swizzle an object in this way. Instead, you should always do swizzling using setImplementation in
conjunction with a C function, allowing you to call the method with the original selector.

#import "NSUserDefaults+Timing.h"
#import <objc/runtime.h> // Needed for method swizzling

static IMP old_synchronize = NULL;

static void new_synchronize(id self, SEL _cmd);

@implementation NSUserDefaults(Timing)

+ (void)load
{
Method originalMethod = class_getInstanceMethod([self class], @selector(synchronize:));
IMP swizzleImp = (IMP)new_synchronize;
old_synchronize = method_setImplementation(originalMethod, swizzleImp);
}
@end

static void new_synchronize(id self, SEL _cmd);

{
NSDate *started;
BOOL returnValue;

started = [NSDate date];

// Call the original implementation, passing the same parameters

// that this function was called with, including the selector.
returnValue = old_synchronize(self, _cmd);

NSLog(@"Writing user defaults took %f seconds.", [[NSDate date]

timeIntervalSinceDate:started]);

return returnValue;
}

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 82

@end

If you need to swizzle a method that takes parameters, you just add them as additional parameters to the function.
For example:

static IMP old_viewWillAppear_animated = NULL;

static void new_viewWillAppear_animated(id self, SEL _cmd, BOOL animated);

...

Method originalMethod = class_getClassMethod([UIViewController class], @selector(viewWillAppear:));

IMP swizzleImp = (IMP)new_viewWillAppear_animated;
old_viewWillAppear_animated = method_setImplementation(originalMethod, swizzleImp);

...

static void new_viewWillAppear_animated(id self, SEL _cmd, BOOL animated)

{
...

old_viewWillAppear_animated(self, _cmd, animated);

...
}

Section 34.2: Attach object to another existing object

(association)
It's possible to attach an object to an existing object as if there was a new property. This is called association and
allows one to extend existing objects. It can be used to provide storage when adding a property via a class
extension or otherwise add additional information to an existing object.

The associated object is automatically released by the runtime once the target object is deallocated.

#import <objc/runtime.h>

// "Key" for association. Its value is never used and doesn't

// matter. The only purpose of this global static variable is to
// provide a guaranteed unique value at runtime: no two distinct
// global variables can share the same address.
static char key;

id target = ...;
id payload = ...;
objc_setAssociateObject(target, &key, payload, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN);
// Other useful values are OBJC_ASSOCIATION_COPY
// and OBJ_ASSOCIATION_ASSIGN

id queryPayload = objc_getAssociatedObject(target, &key);

Section 34.3: Calling methods directly

If you need to call an Objective-C method from C code, you have two ways: using objc_msgSend, or obtaining the
IMP (method implementation function pointer) and calling that.

#import <objc/objc.h>

@implementation Example

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 83

- (double)negate:(double)value {
return -value;
}

- (double)invert:(double)value {
return 1 / value;
}

@end

// Calls the selector on the object. Expects the method to have one double argument and return a
double.
double performSelectorWithMsgSend(id object, SEL selector, double value) {
// We declare pointer to function and cast `objc_msgSend` to expected signature.
// WARNING: This step is important! Otherwise you may get unexpected results!
double (*msgSend)(id, SEL, double) = (typeof(msgSend)) &objc_msgSend;

// The implicit arguments of self and _cmd need to be passed in addition to any explicit
arguments.
return msgSend(object, selector, value);
}

// Does the same as the above function, but by obtaining the method's IMP.
double performSelectorWithIMP(id object, SEL selector, double value) {
// Get the method's implementation.
IMP imp = class_getMethodImplementation([self class], selector);

// Cast it so the types are known and ARC can work correctly.
double (*callableImp)(id, SEL, double) = (typeof(callableImp)) imp;

// Again, you need the explicit arguments.

return callableImp(object, selector, value);
}

int main() {
Example *e = [Example new];

// Invoke negation, result is -4

double x = performSelectorWithMsgSend(e, @selector(negate:), 4);

// Invoke inversion, result is 0.25

double y = performSelectorWithIMP(e, @selector(invert:), 4);
}

objc_msgSend works by obtaining the IMP for the method and calling that. The IMPs for the last several methods
called are cached, so if you're sending an Objective-C message in a very tight loop you can get acceptable
performance. In some cases, manually caching the IMP can give slightly better performance, although this is a last
resort optimization.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 84

Chapter 35: Fast Enumeration
Section 35.1: Fast enumeration of an NSArray with index
This example shows how to use fast enumeration in order to traverse through an NSArray. With this way you can
also track current object's index while traversing.

Suppose you have an array,

NSArray *weekDays = @[@"Monday", @"Tuesday", @"Wednesday", @"Thursday", @"Friday", @"Saturday",

@"Sunday"];

Now you can traverse through the array like below,

[weekDays enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {

//... Do your usual stuff here

obj // This is the current object

idx // This is the index of the current object
stop // Set this to true if you want to stop

}];

Section 35.2: Fast enumeration of an NSArray

This example shows how to use fast enumeration in order to traverse through an NSArray.

When you have an array, such as

NSArray *collection = @[@"fast", @"enumeration", @"in objc"];

You can use the for ... in syntax to go through each item of the array, automatically starting with the first at
index 0 and stopping with the last item:

for (NSString *item in collection) {

NSLog(@"item: %@", item);
}

In this example, the output generated would look like

// item: fast
// item: enumeration
// item: in objc

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Chapter 36: Categories
Section 36.1: Conforming to protocol
You can add protocols to standard classes to extends their functionality:

@protocol EncodableToString <NSObject>

- (NSString *)toString;
@end

@interface NSDictionary (XYZExtended) <EncodableToString>

@end

@implementation NSDictionary (XYZExtended)

- (NSString *)toString {
return self.description;
}
@end

where XYZ your project's prefix

Section 36.2: Simple Category

Interface and implementation of a simple category on NSArray, named Filter, with a single method that filters
numbers.

It is good practice to add a prefix (PF) to the method to ensure we don't overwrite any future NSArray methods.

@interface NSArray (PFFilter)

- (NSArray *)pf_filterSmaller:(double)number;

@end

@implementation NSArray (PFFilter)

- (NSArray *)pf_filterSmaller:(double)number
{
NSMutableArray *result = [NSMutableArray array];
for (id val in self)
{
if ([val isKindOfClass:[NSNumber class] && [val doubleValue] >= number)
{
[result addObject:val];
}
}
return [result copy];
}

@end

Section 36.3: Declaring a class method

Header file UIColor+XYZPalette.h:

@interface UIColor (XYZPalette)

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 86

+(UIColor *)xyz_indigoColor;

@end

and implementation UIColor+XYZPalette.m:

@implementation UIColor (XYZPalette)

+(UIColor *)xyz_indigoColor
{
return [UIColor colorWithRed:75/255.0f green:0/255.0f blue:130/255.0f alpha:1.0f];
}

@end

Section 36.4: Adding a property with a category

Properties can be added with categories using associated objects, a feature of the Objective-C runtime.

Note that the property declaration of retain, nonatomic matches the last argument to
objc_setAssociatedObject. See Attach object to another existing object for explanations.

#import <objc/runtime.h>

@interface UIViewController (ScreenName)

@property (retain, nonatomic) NSString *screenName;

@end

@implementation UIViewController (ScreenName)

@dynamic screenName;

- (NSString *)screenName {
return objc_getAssociatedObject(self, @selector(screenName));
}

- (void)setScreenName:(NSString *)screenName {
objc_setAssociatedObject(self, @selector(screenName), screenName,
OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC);
}

@end

Section 36.5: Create a Category on XCode

Categories provide the ability to add some extra functionality to an object without subclassing or changing the
actual object.

For example we want to set some custom fonts. Let's create a category that add functionality to UIFont class. Open
your XCode project, click on File -> New -> File and choose Objective-C file, click Next enter your category name
say "CustomFont" choose file type as Category and Class as UIFont then Click "Next" followed by "Create."

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GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 88
Declare the Category Method:

Click "UIFont+CustomFonts.h" to view the new category's header file. Add the following code to the interface to
declare the method.

@interface UIFont (CustomFonts)

+(UIFont *)productSansRegularFontWithSize:(CGFloat)size;

@end

Now Implement the Category Method:

Click "UIFont+CustomFonts.m" to view the category's implementation file. Add the following code to create a
method that will set ProductSansRegular Font.

+(UIFont *)productSansRegularFontWithSize:(CGFloat)size{

return [UIFont fontWithName:@"ProductSans-Regular" size:size];

Import your category

#import "UIFont+CustomFonts.h"

Now set the Label font

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 89

[self.label setFont:[UIFont productSansRegularFontWithSize:16.0]];

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Chapter 37: Protocols
Section 37.1: Optional and required methods
By default, all the methods declared in a protocol are required. This means that any class that conforms to this
protocol must implement those methods.

It is also possible to declare optional methods. These method can be implemented only if needed.

You mark optional methods with the @optional directive.

@protocol NewProtocol
- (void)protocolMethod:(id)argument;
@optional
- (id)anotherMethod;
@end

In this case, only anotherMethod is marked as optional; the methods without the @optional directive are assumed
to be required.

The @optional directive applies to methods that follow, until the end of the protocol definition or, until another
directive is found.

@protocol NewProtocol
- (void)protocolMethod:(id)argument;
@optional
- (id)anotherMethod;
- (void)andAnotherMethod:(id)argument;
@required
- (void)lastProtocolMethod;
@end

This last example defines a protocol with two optional methods and two required methods.

Section 37.2: Checking existence of optional method

implementations
if ([object respondsToSelector:@selector(someOptionalMethodInProtocol:)])
{
[object someOptionalMethodInProtocol:argument];
}

Section 37.3: Forward Declarations

It's possible to declare protocol name without methods:

@protocol Person;

use it your code (class definition, etc):

@interface World : NSObject

@property (strong, nonatomic) NSArray<id<some>> *employees;
@end

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and later define protocol's method somewhere in your code:

@protocol Person
- (NSString *)gender;
- (NSString *)name;
@end

It's useful when you don't need to know protocols details until you import that file with protocol definition. So, your
class header file stays clear and contains details of the class only.

Section 37.4: Conforming to Protocols

The following syntax indicate that a class adopts a protocol, using angle brackets.

@interface NewClass : NSObject <NewProtocol>

...
@end

This means that any instance of NewClass will respond to methods declared in its interface but also it will provide
an implementation for all the required methods of NewProtocol.

It is also possible for a class to conform to multiple protocols, by separating them with comma.

@interface NewClass : NSObject <NewProtocol, AnotherProtocol, MyProtocol>

...
@end

Like when conforming to a single protocol, the class must implement each required method of each protocols, and
each optional method you choose to implement.

Section 37.5: Basic Protocol Definition

Defining a new protocol:

@protocol NewProtocol

- (void)protocolMethod:(id)argument;

- (id)anotherMethod;

@end

Section 37.6: Check conforms Protocol

Returns a Boolean indicating if the class conform the protocol:

[MyClass conformsToProtocol:@protocol(MyProtocol)];

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Chapter 38: Protocols and Delegates
Section 38.1: Implementation of Protocols and Delegation
mechanism
Suppose you have two views ViewA and ViewB

Instance of ViewB is created inside ViewA, so ViewA can send message to ViewB's instance, but for the reverse to
happen we need to implement delegation (so that using delegate ViewB's instance could send message to ViewA)

Follow these steps to implement the delegation

1. In ViewB create protocol as

@protocol ViewBDelegate

-(void) exampleDelegateMethod;

@end

2. Declare the delegate in the sender class

@interface ViewB : UIView

@property (nonatomic, weak) id< ViewBDelegate > delegate;
@end

3. Adopt the protocol in Class ViewA

@interfac ViewA: UIView < ViewBDelegate >

4. Set the delegate

-(void) anyFunction
{
// create Class ViewB's instance and set the delegate
[viewB setDelegate:self];
}

5. Implement the delegate method in class ViewA

-(void) exampleDelegateMethod
{
// will be called by Class ViewB's instance
}

6. Use the method in class ViewB to call the delegate method as

-(void) callDelegateMethod
{
[delegate exampleDelegateMethod];
//assuming the delegate is assigned otherwise error
}

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Chapter 39: Blocks
Section 39.1: Block Typedefs
typedef double (^Operation)(double first, double second);

If you declare a block type as a typedef, you can then use the new type name instead of the full description of the
arguments and return values. This defines Operation as a block that takes two doubles and returns a double.

The type can be used for the parameter of a method:

- (double)doWithOperation:(Operation)operation
first:(double)first
second:(double)second;

or as a variable type:

Operation addition = ^double(double first, double second){

return first + second;
};

// Returns 3.0
[self doWithOperation:addition
first:1.0
second:2.0];

Without the typedef, this is much messier:

- (double)doWithOperation:(double (^)(double, double))operation

first:(double)first
second:(double)second;

double (^addition)(double, double) = // ...

Section 39.2: Blocks as Properties

@interface MyObject : MySuperclass

@property (copy) void (^blockProperty)(NSString *string);

@end

When assigning, since self retains blockProperty, block should not contain a strong reference to self. Those
mutual strong references are called a "retain cycle" and will prevent the release of either object.

__weak __typeof(self) weakSelf = self;

self.blockProperty = ^(NSString *string) {
// refer only to weakSelf here. self will cause a retain cycle
};

It is highly unlikely, but self might be deallocated inside the block, somewhere during the execution. In this case
weakSelf becomes nil and all messages to it have no desired effect. This might leave the app in an unknown state.
This can be avoided by retaining weakSelf with a __strong ivar during block execution and clean up afterward.

__weak __typeof(self) weakSelf = self;

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self.blockProperty = ^(NSString *string) {
__strong __typeof(weakSelf) strongSelf = weakSelf;
// refer only to strongSelf here.
// ...
// At the end of execution, clean up the reference
strongSelf = nil;
};

Section 39.3: Blocks as local variables

returnType (^blockName)(parameterType1, parameterType2, ...) = ^returnType(argument1, argument2,
...) {...};

float (^square)(float) = ^(float x) {return x*x;};

square(5); // resolves to 25
square(-7); // resolves to 49

Here's an example with no return and no parameters:

NSMutableDictionary *localStatus;
void (^logStatus)() = ^(void){ [MYUniversalLogger logCurrentStatus:localStatus]};

// Insert some code to add useful status information

// to localStatus dictionary

logStatus(); // this will call the block with the current localStatus

Section 39.4: Blocks as Method Parameters

- (void)methodWithBlock:(returnType (^)(paramType1, paramType2, ...))name;

Section 39.5: Defining and Assigning

A block that performs addition of two double precision numbers, assigned to variable addition:

double (^addition)(double, double) = ^double(double first, double second){

return first + second;
};

The block can be subsequently called like so:

double result = addition(1.0, 2.0); // result == 3.0

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Chapter 40: XML parsing
Section 40.1: XML Parsing

We will parse the highlighted tag data through NSXMLParser

We have declared few properties as follows

@property(nonatomic, strong)NSMutableArray *results;

@property(nonatomic, strong)NSMutableString *parsedString;
@property(nonatomic, strong)NSXMLParser *xmlParser;

//Fetch xml data

NSURLSession *session=[NSURLSession sessionWithConfiguration:[NSURLSessionConfiguration
defaultSessionConfiguration]];

NSURLSessionDataTask *task=[session dataTaskWithRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL

URLWithString:YOUR_XMLURL]] completionHandler:^(NSData * _Nullable data, NSURLResponse * _Nullable
response, NSError * _Nullable error) {

self.xmlParser=[[NSXMLParser alloc] initWithData:data];

self.xmlParser.delegate=self;

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if([self.xmlParser parse]){
//If parsing completed successfully

NSLog(@"%@",self.results);

}];

[task resume];

Then we define the NSXMLParserDelegate

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didStartElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(nullable

NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(nullable NSString *)qName attributes:(NSDictionary<NSString
*, NSString *> *)attributeDict{

if([elementName isEqualToString:@"GeocodeResponse"]){
self.results=[[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
}

if([elementName isEqualToString:@"formatted_address"]){
self.parsedString=[[NSMutableString alloc] init];
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser foundCharacters:(NSString *)string{

if(self.parsedString){
[self.parsedString appendString:[string stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet
whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]]];
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didEndElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(nullable

NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(nullable NSString *)qName{

if([elementName isEqualToString:@"formatted_address"]){
[self.results addObject:self.parsedString];

self.parsedString=nil;
}

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Chapter 41: Declare class method and
instance method
Instance method are methods that are specific to particular classes. Instance methods are declared and defined
followed by - (minus) symbol.

Class methods can be called by class name itself .Class methods are declared and defined by using + (plus)sign .

Section 41.1: How to declare class method and instance

method
instance methods use an instance of a class.

@interface MyTestClass : NSObject

- (void)testInstanceMethod;

@end

They could then be used like so:

MyTestClass *object = [[MyTestClass alloc] init];

[object testInstanceMethod];

Class method can be used with just the class name.

@interface MyClass : NSObject

+ (void)aClassMethod;

@end

They could then be used like so:

[MyClass aClassMethod];

class methods are the convenience methods on many Foundation classes like [NSString's
+stringWithFormat:] or NSArray's +arrayWithArray

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 98

Chapter 42: Predefined Macros
ANSI C defines a number of macros. Although each one is available for your use in programming, the predefined
macros should not be directly modified.

Section 42.1: Predefined Macros

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main()
{
NSLog(@"File :%s\n", __FILE__ );
NSLog(@"Date :%s\n", __DATE__ );
NSLog(@"Time :%s\n", __TIME__ );
NSLog(@"Line :%d\n", __LINE__ );
NSLog(@"ANSI :%d\n", __STDC__ );

return 0;
}

When the above code in a file main.m is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

2013-09-14 04:46:14.859 demo[20683] File :main.m

2013-09-14 04:46:14.859 demo[20683] Date :Sep 14 2013
2013-09-14 04:46:14.859 demo[20683] Time :04:46:14
2013-09-14 04:46:14.859 demo[20683] Line :8
2013-09-14 04:46:14.859 demo[20683] ANSI :1

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 99

Chapter 43: Grand Central Dispatch
Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) In iOS, Apple provides two ways to do multitasking: The Grand Central Dispatch
(GCD) and NSOperationQueue frameworks. We will discuss here about GCD. GCD is a lightweight way to represent
units of work that are going to be executed concurrently You don’t schedule these units of work; the system takes
care of scheduling for you. Adding dependency among blocks can be a headache. Canceling or suspending a block
creates extra work for you as a developer!

Section 43.1: What is Grand central dispatch

What is Concurrency?

Doing multiple things at the same time.

Taking advantage of number of cores available in multicore CPUs.

Running multiple programs in parallel.

Objectives of Concurrency

Running program in background without hogging CPU.

Define Tasks, Define Rules and let the system take the responsibility of performing them.

Improve responsiveness by ensuring that the main thread is free to respond to user events.

DISPATCH QUEUES

Grand central dispatch – dispatch queues allows us to execute arbitrary blocks of code either asynchronously or
synchronously All Dispatch Queues are first in – first out All the tasks added to dispatch queue are started in the
order they were added to the dispatch queue.

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Chapter 44: Format-Specifiers
Format-Specifiers are used in Objective-C to implant object-values into a string.

Section 44.1: Integer Example - %i

int highScore = 57;
NSString *scoreBoard = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"HighScore: %i", (int)highScore];

NSLog(scoreBoard);//logs "HighScore: 57"

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Chapter 45: Logging
Section 45.1: Logging
NSLog(@"Log Message!");
NSLog(@"NSString value: %@", stringValue);
NSLog(@"Integer value: %d", intValue);

The first argument of NSLog is an NSString containing the log message format. The rest of the parameters are used
as values to substitute in place of the format specifiers.

The formatting works exactly the same as printf, except for the additional format specifier %@ for an arbitrary
Objective-C object. This:

NSLog(@"%@", object);

is equivalent to:

NSLog(@"%s", [object description].UTF8String);

Section 45.2: NSLog Output Format

NSLog(@"NSLog message");

The message that gets printed by calling NSLog has the following format when viewed in Console.app:

Date Time Program name Process ID Thread ID Message

2016-07-16 08:58:04.681 test [46259 : 1244773] NSLog message

Section 45.3: Removing Log Statements from Release Builds

Messages printed from NSLog are displayed on Console.app even in the release build of your app, which doesn't
make sense for printouts that are only useful for debugging. To fix this, you can use this macro for debug logging
instead of NSLog.

#ifdef DEBUG
#define DLog(...) NSLog(__VA_ARGS__)
#else
#define DLog(...)
#endif

To use:

NSString *value = @"value 1";

DLog(@"value = %@", value);
// little known fact: programmers look for job postings in Console.app
NSLog(@"We're hiring!");

In debug builds, DLog will call NSLog. In release builds, DLog will do nothing.

Section 45.4: Logging Variable Values

You shouldn't call NSLog without a literal format string like this:

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NSLog(variable); // Dangerous code!

If the variable is not an NSString, the program will crash, because NSLog expects an NSString.

If the variable is an NSString, it will work unless your string contains a %. NSLog will parse the % sequence as a
format specifier and then read a garbage value off the stack, causing a crash or even executing arbitrary code.

Instead, always make the first argument a format specifier, like this:

NSLog(@"%@", anObjectVariable);
NSLog(@"%d", anIntegerVariable);

Section 45.5: Empty message is not printed

When NSLog is asked to print empty string, it omits the log completely.

NSString *name = @"";

NSLog(@"%@", name); // Resolves to @""

The above code will print nothing.

It is a good practice to prefix logs with labels:

NSString *name = @"";

NSLog(@"Name: %@", name); // Resolves to @"Name: "

The above code will print:

2016-07-21 14:20:28.623 App[87711:6153103] Name:

Section 45.6: Using __FUNCTION __

NSLog(@"%s %@",__FUNCTION__, @"etc etc");

Inserts the class and method name into the output:

2016-07-22 12:51:30.099 loggingExample[18132:2971471] -[ViewController viewDidLoad] etc etc

Section 45.7: NSLog vs printf

NSLog(@"NSLog message");
printf("printf message\n");

Output:

2016-07-16 08:58:04.681 test[46259:1244773] NSLog message

printf message

NSLog outputs the date, time, process name, process ID, and thread ID in addition to the log message. printf just
outputs the message.

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NSLog requires an NSString and automatically adds a newline at the end. printf requires a C string and does not
automatically add a newline.

NSLog sends output to stderr, printf sends output to stdout.

Some format-specifiers in printf vs NSLog are different. For example when including a nested string, the
following differences incur:

NSLog(@"My string: %@", (NSString *)myString);

printf("My string: %s", [(NSString *)myString UTF8String]);

Section 45.8: Logging NSLog meta data

NSLog(@"%s %d %s, yourVariable: %@", __FILE__, __LINE__, __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, yourVariable);

Will log the file, line number and function data along with any variables you want to log. This can make the log lines
much longer, particularly with verbose file and method names, however it can help to speed up error diagnostics.

You can also wrap this in a Macro (store this in a Singleton or where you'll need it most);

#define ALog(fmt, ...) NSLog((@"%s [Line %d] " fmt), __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, __LINE__, ##__VA_ARGS__);

Then when you want to log, simply call

ALog(@"name: %@", firstName);

Which will give you something like;

-[AppDelegate application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:] [Line 27] name: John

Section 45.9: NSLog and BOOL type

There is no format specifier to print boolean type using NSLog. One way to print boolean value is to convert it to a
string.

BOOL boolValue = YES;

NSLog(@"Bool value %@", boolValue ? @"YES" : @"NO");

Output:

2016-07-30 22:53:18.269 Test[4445:64129] Bool value YES

Another way to print boolean value is to cast it to integer, achieving a binary output (1=yes, 0=no).

BOOL boolValue = YES;

NSLog(@"Bool value %i", boolValue);

Output:

2016-07-30 22:53:18.269 Test[4445:64129] Bool value 1

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Section 45.10: Logging by Appending to a File
NSLog is good, but you can also log by appending to a file instead, using code like:

NSFileHandle* fh = [NSFileHandle fileHandleForWritingAtPath:path];

if ( !fh ) {
[[NSFileManager defaultManager] createFileAtPath:path contents:nil attributes:nil];
fh = [NSFileHandle fileHandleForWritingAtPath:path];
}
if ( fh ) {
@try {
[fh seekToEndOfFile];
[fh writeData:[self dataUsingEncoding:enc]];
}
@catch (...) {
}
[fh closeFile];
}

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Chapter 46: Error Handling
Section 46.1: Error & Exception handling with try catch block
Exceptions represent programmer-level bugs like trying to access an array element that doesn’t exist.

Errors are user-level issues like trying load a file that doesn’t exist. Because errors are expected during the normal
execution of a program.

Example:

NSArray *inventory = @[@"Sam",

@"John",
@"Sanju"];
int selectedIndex = 3;
@try {
NSString * name = inventory[selectedIndex];
NSLog(@"The selected Name is: %@", name);
} @catch(NSException *theException) {
NSLog(@"An exception occurred: %@", theException.name);
NSLog(@"Here are some details: %@", theException.reason);
} @finally {
NSLog(@"Executing finally block");
}

Output:

An exception occurred: NSRangeException

Here are some details: *** -[__NSArrayI objectAtIndex:]: index 3 beyond bounds [0 .. 2]

Executing finally block

Section 46.2: Asserting

@implementation Triangle

...

-(void)setAngles:(NSArray *)_angles {
self.angles = _angles;

NSAssert((self.angles.count == 3), @"Triangles must have 3 angles. Array '%@' has %i",
self.angles, (int)self.angles.count);

CGFloat angleA = [self.angles[0] floatValue];

CGFloat angleB = [self.angles[1] floatValue];
CGFloat angleC = [self.angles[2] floatValue];
CGFloat sum = (angleA + angleB + angleC);
NSAssert((sum == M_PI), @"Triangles' angles must add up to pi radians (180°). This triangle's
angles add up to %f radians (%f°)", (float)sum, (float)(sum * (180.0f / M_PI)));

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}

These assertions make sure that you don't give a triangle incorrect angles, by throwing an exception if you do. If
they didn't throw an exception than the triangle, not being a true triangle at all, might cause some bugs in later
code.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 107

Chapter 47: Modern Objective-C
Section 47.1: Literals
Modern Objective-C provides ways to reduce amount of code you need to initialize some common types. This new
way is very similar to how NSString objects are initialized with constant strings.

NSNumber

Old way:

NSNumber *number = [NSNumber numberWithInt:25];

Modern way:

NSNumber *number = @25;

Note: you can also store BOOL values in NSNumber objects using @YES, @NO or @(someBoolValue);

NSArray

Old way:

NSArray *array = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"One", @"Two", [NSNumber numberWithInt:3],

@"Four", nil];

Modern way:

NSArray *array = @[@"One", @"Two", @3, @"Four"];

NSDictionary

Old way:

NSDictionary *dictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys: array, @"Object", [NSNumber

numberWithFloat:1.5], @"Value", @"ObjectiveC", @"Language", nil];

Modern way:

NSDictionary *dictionary = @{@"Object": array, @"Value": @1.5, @"Language": @"ObjectiveC"};

Section 47.2: Container subscripting

In modern Objective-C syntax you can get values from NSArray and NSDictionary containers using container
subscripting.

Old way:

NSObject *object1 = [array objectAtIndex:1];

NSObject *object2 = [dictionary objectForKey:@"Value"];

Modern way:

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 108

NSObject *object1 = array[1];
NSObject *object2 = dictionary[@"Value"];

You can also insert objects into arrays and set objects for keys in dictionaries in a cleaner way:

Old way:

// replacing at specific index

[mutableArray replaceObjectAtIndex:1 withObject:@"NewValue"];
// adding a new value to the end
[mutableArray addObject:@"NewValue"];

[mutableDictionary setObject:@"NewValue" forKey:@"NewKey"];

Modern way:

mutableArray[1] = @"NewValue";
mutableArray[[mutableArray count]] = @"NewValue";

mutableDictionary[@"NewKey"] = @"NewValue";

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 109

Chapter 48: Singletons
Just make sure you read this thread ( What is so bad about singletons? ) before using it.

Section 48.1: Using Grand Central Dispatch (GCD)

GCD will guarantee that your singleton only gets instantiated once, even if called from multiple threads. Insert this
into any class for a singleton instance called shared.

+ (instancetype)shared {

// Variable that will point to the singleton instance. The `static`

// modifier makes it behave like a global variable: the value assigned
// to it will "survive" the method call.
static id _shared;

static dispatch_once_t _onceToken;

dispatch_once(&_onceToken, ^{

// This block is only executed once, in a thread-safe way.

// Create the instance and assign it to the static variable.
_shared = [self new];
});

return _shared;
}

Section 48.2: Creating Singleton and also preventing it from

having multiple instance using alloc/init, new
//MySingletonClass.h
@interface MySingletonClass : NSObject

+ (instancetype)sharedInstance;

-(instancetype)init NS_UNAVAILABLE;

-(instancetype)new NS_UNAVAILABLE;

@end

//MySingletonClass.m

@implementation MySingletonClass

+ (instancetype)sharedInstance
{
static MySingletonClass *_sharedInstance = nil;
static dispatch_once_t oncePredicate;
dispatch_once(&oncePredicate, ^{
_sharedInstance = [[self alloc]init];
});

return _sharedInstance;
}
-(instancetype)init
{
self = [super init];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 110

 if(self)
{
//Do any additional initialization if required
}
return self;
}
@end

Section 48.3: Creating Singleton class and also preventing it

from having multiple instances using alloc/init
We can create Singleton class in such a way that developers are forced to use the shared instance (singleton object)
instead of creating their own instances.

@implementation MySingletonClass

+ (instancetype)sharedInstance
{
static MySingletonClass *_sharedInstance = nil;
static dispatch_once_t oncePredicate;
dispatch_once(&oncePredicate, ^{
_sharedInstance = [[self alloc] initClass];
});

return _sharedInstance;
}

-(instancetype)initClass
{
self = [super init];
if(self)
{
//Do any additional initialization if required
}
return self;
}

- (instancetype)init
{
@throw [NSException exceptionWithName:@"Not designated initializer"
reason:@"Use [MySingletonClass sharedInstance]"
userInfo:nil];
return nil;
}
@end

/*Following line will throw an exception

with the Reason:"Use [MySingletonClass sharedInstance]"
when tried to alloc/init directly instead of using sharedInstance */
MySingletonClass *mySingletonClass = [[MySingletonClass alloc] init];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 111

Chapter 49: Multi-Threading
Section 49.1: Creating a simple thread
The most simple way to create a thread is by calling a selector "in the background". This means a new thread is
created to execute the selector. The receiving object can be any object, not just self, but it needs to respond to the
given selector.

- (void)createThread {
[self performSelectorInBackground:@selector(threadMainWithOptionalArgument:)
withObject:someObject];
}

- (void)threadMainWithOptionalArgument:(id)argument {
// To avoid memory leaks, the first thing a thread method needs to do is
// create a new autorelease pool, either manually or via "@autoreleasepool".
@autoreleasepool {
// The thread code should be here.
}
}

Section 49.2: Create more complex thread

Using a subclass of NSThread allows implementation of more complex threads (for example, to allow passing more
arguments or to encapsulate all related helper methods in one class). Additionally, the NSThread instance can be
saved in a property or variable and can be queried about its current state (whether it's still running).

The NSThread class supports a method called cancel that can be called from any thread, which then sets the
cancelled property to YES in a thread-safe way. The thread implementation can query (and/or observe) the
cancelled property and exit its main method. This can be used to gracefully shut down a worker thread.

// Create a new NSThread subclass

@interface MyThread : NSThread

// Add properties for values that need to be passed from the caller to the new
// thread. Caller must not modify these once the thread is started to avoid
// threading issues (or the properties must be made thread-safe using locks).
@property NSInteger someProperty;

@end

@implementation MyThread

- (void)main
{
@autoreleasepool {
// The main thread method goes here
NSLog(@"New thread. Some property: %ld", (long)self.someProperty);
}
}

@end

MyThread *thread = [[MyThread alloc] init];

thread.someProperty = 42;
[thread start];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 112

Section 49.3: Thread-local storage
Every thread has access to a mutable dictionary that is local to the current thread. This allows to cache information
in an easy way without the need for locking, as each thread has its own dedicated mutable dictionary:

NSMutableDictionary *localStorage = [NSThread currentThread].threadDictionary;

localStorage[someKey] = someValue;

The dictionary is automatically released when the thread terminates.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 113

Chapter 50: Unit testing using Xcode
Section 50.1: Note:
Make sure that include unit test case box is checked when creating a new project as shown below:

Section 50.2: Testing a block of code or some method:

Import the class, which contains the method to be tested.
Perform the operation with dummy data.
Now compare the result of operation with expected result.

- (void)testReverseString{
NSString *originalString = @"hi_my_name_is_siddharth";
NSString *reversedString = [self.someObject reverseString:originalString];
NSString *expectedReversedString = @"htrahddis_si_eman_ym_ih";
XCTAssertEqualObjects(expectedReversedString, reversedString, @"The reversed string did not match
the expected reverse");
}

Feed the dummy data to the method under test if required & then compare the expected & actual
results.

Section 50.3: Testing asynchronous block of code:

- (void)testDoSomethingThatTakesSomeTime{
XCTestExpectation *completionExpectation = [self expectationWithDescription:@"Long method"];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 114

[self.someObject doSomethingThatTakesSomeTimesWithCompletionBlock:^(NSString *result) {
XCTAssertEqualObjects(@"result", result, @"Result was not correct!");
[completionExpectation fulfill];
}];
[self waitForExpectationsWithTimeout:5.0 handler:nil];
}

Feed the dummy data to the method under test if required.

The test will pause here, running the run loop, until the timeout is hit or all expectations are fulfilled.
Timeout is the expected time for the asynchronous block to response.

Section 50.4: Measuring Performance of a block of code:

1. For Synchronous methods :

- (void)testPerformanceReverseString {
NSString *originalString = @"hi_my_name_is_siddharth";
[self measureBlock:^{
[self.someObject reverseString:originalString];
}];
}

2. For Asynchronous methods :

- (void)testPerformanceOfAsynchronousBlock {
[self measureMetrics:@[XCTPerformanceMetric_WallClockTime] automaticallyStartMeasuring:YES
forBlock:^{

XCTestExpectation *expectation = [self

expectationWithDescription:@"performanceTestWithResponse"];

[self.someObject doSomethingThatTakesSomeTimesWithCompletionBlock:^(NSString *result) {

[expectation fulfill];
}];
[self waitForExpectationsWithTimeout:5.0 handler:^(NSError *error) {
}];
}];
}

These performance measure block gets executed for 10 times consecutively & then the average is calculated,
& on the basis of this average performance result gets created & baseline is accepted for further evaluation.
The performance result is compared with the previous test results & baseline with a customizable max
standard deviation.

Section 50.5: Running Test Suits:

Run all tests by choosing Product > Test. Click the Test Navigator icon to view the status and results of the tests. You
can add a test target to a project (or add a class to a test) by clicking the Add (plus) button in the bottom-left corner
of the test navigator. To view the source code for a particular test, select it from the test list. The file opens in the
source code editor.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 115

Chapter 51: Memory Management
Section 51.1: Memory management rules when using manual
reference counting
These rules apply only if you use manual reference counting!

1. You own any object you create

By calling a method whose name begins with alloc, new, copy or mutableCopy. For example:

NSObject *object1 = [[NSObject alloc] init];

NSObject *object2 = [NSObject new];
NSObject *object3 = [object2 copy];

That means that you are responsible for releasing these objects when you are done with them.

2. You can take ownership of an object using retain

To take ownership for an object you call the retain method.

For example:

NSObject *object = [NSObject new]; // object already has a retain count of 1

[object retain]; // retain count is now 2

This makes only sense in some rare situations.

For example when you implement an accessor or an init method to take ownership:

- (void)setStringValue:(NSString *)stringValue {
[_privateStringValue release]; // Release the old value, you no longer need it
[stringValue retain]; // You make sure that this object does not get deallocated outside
of your scope.
_privateStringValue = stringValue;
}

3. When you no longer need it, you must relinquish ownership of an object you own

NSObject* object = [NSObject new]; // The retain count is now 1

[object performAction1]; // Now we are done with the object
[object release]; // Release the object

4. You must not relinquish ownership of an object you do not own

That means when you didn't take ownership of an object you don't release it.

5. Autoreleasepool

The autoreleasepool is a block of code that releases every object in the block that received an autorelease
message.

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 116

 Example:

@autoreleasepool {
NSString* string = [NSString stringWithString:@"We don't own this object"];
}

We have created a string without taking ownership. The NSString method stringWithString: has to make
sure that the string is correctly deallocated after it is no longer needed. Before the method returns the newly
created string calls the autorelease method so it does not have to take ownership of the string.

This is how the stringWithString: is implemented:

+ (NSString *)stringWithString:(NSString *)string {

NSString *createdString = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:string];
[createdString autorelease];
return createdString;
}

It is necessary to use autoreleasepool blocks because you sometimes have objects that you don't own (the
fourth rules does not always apply).

Automatic reference counting takes automatically care of the rules so you don't have to.

Section 51.2: Automatic Reference Counting

With automatic reference counting (ARC), the compiler inserts retain, release, and autorelease statements where
they are needed, so you don't have to write them yourself. It also writes dealloc methods for you.

The sample program from Manual Memory Management looks like this with ARC:

@interface MyObject : NSObject {

NSString *_property;
}
@end

@implementation MyObject
@synthesize property = _property;

- (id)initWithProperty:(NSString *)property {
if (self = [super init]) {
_property = property;
}
return self;
}

- (NSString *)property {
return property;
}

- (void)setProperty:(NSString *)property {
_property = property;
}

@end

int main() {
MyObject *obj = [[MyObject alloc] init];

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 117

 NSString *value = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:@"value"];
[obj setProperty:value];

[obj setProperty:@"value"];
}

You are still able to override the dealloc method to clean up resources not handled by ARC. Unlike when using
manual memory management you do not call [super dealloc].

-(void)dealloc {
//clean up
}

Section 51.3: Strong and weak references

Version = Modern

A weak reference looks like one of these:

@property (weak) NSString *property;

NSString *__weak variable;

If you have a weak reference to an object, then under the hood:

You're not retaining it.

When it gets deallocated, every reference to it will automatically be set to nil

Object references are always strong by default. But you can explicitly specify that they're strong:

@property (strong) NSString *property;

NSString *__strong variable;

A strong reference means that while that reference exists, you are retaining the object.

Section 51.4: Manual Memory Management

This is an example of a program written with manual memory management. You really shouldn't write your code
like this, unless for some reason you can't use ARC (like if you need to support 32-bit). The example avoids
@property notation to illustrate how you used to have to write getters and setters.

@interface MyObject : NSObject {

NSString *_property;
}
@end

@implementation MyObject
@synthesize property = _property;

- (id)initWithProperty:(NSString *)property {
if (self = [super init]) {
// Grab a reference to property to make sure it doesn't go away.
// The reference is released in dealloc.
_property = [property retain];
}
return self;

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 118

}

- (NSString *)property {
return [[property retain] autorelease];
}

- (void)setProperty:(NSString *)property {
// Retain, then release. So setting it to the same value won't lose the reference.
[property retain];
[_property release];
_property = property;
}

- (void)dealloc {
[_property release];
[super dealloc]; // Don't forget!
}

@end

int main() {
// create object
// obj is a reference that we need to release
MyObject *obj = [[MyObject alloc] init];

// We have to release value because we created it.

NSString *value = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:@"value"];
[obj setProperty:value];
[value release];

// However, string constants never need to be released.

[obj setProperty:@"value"];
[obj release];
}

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 119

Credits
Thank you greatly to all the people from Stack Overflow Documentation who helped provide this content,
more changes can be sent to [email protected] for new content to be published or updated

Adriana Carelli Chapter 32

Albert Renshaw Chapters 45, 13 and 44
Ali Riahipour Chapter 1
Amit Kalghatgi Chapter 48
aniket.ghode Chapter 15
AnthoPak Chapter 14
Arc676 Chapter 27
atroutt Chapter 36
BB9z Chapter 39
Bharath Chapter 14
BKO Chapters 6 and 30
byJeevan Chapter 25
Caleb Kleveter Chapter 7
Chris Prince Chapter 45
CodeChanger Chapter 28
connor Chapters 45, 33 and 2
Cory Wilhite Chapter 12
danh Chapter 39
Daniel Bocksteger Chapter 3
DarkDust Chapters 36, 45, 5, 13, 34, 8, 48 and 49
Darshan Kunjadiya Chapter 13
DavidA Chapters 45 and 15
dgatwood Chapter 34
Dipen Panchasara Chapter 22
Doc Chapters 46, 3, 8 and 4
Doron Yakovlev Chapter 3
Ekta Padaliya Chapter 14
Fantini Chapters 39 and 16
Faran Ghani Chapter 36
ff10 Chapter 35
Håvard Chapters 37 and 36
HCarrasko Chapters 45, 14, 5 and 15
Hemang Chapter 27
il Malvagio Dottor
Chapter 13
Prosciutto
insys Chapters 1, 37, 39, 36, 12 and 16
iphonic Chapter 40
JF Chapters 1, 39 and 8
j.f. Chapter 14
James P Chapters 14, 13 and 51
Jason McDermott Chapters 12 and 45
Jeff Wolski Chapters 1, 39, 14 and 13
Jens Meder Chapter 5
Johannes Fahrenkrug Chapters 14 and 23
Johnny Rockex Chapter 13
Jon Schneider Chapter 13
Joost Chapter 15
Josh Brown Chapter 1
Josh Caswell Chapters 39, 14, 13 and 2

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 120

Joshua Chapters 14, 13 and 7
jsondwyer Chapters 14, 7, 9 and 18
Kote Chapter 39
Losiowaty Chapter 14
lostInTransit Chapter 3
Md. Ibrahim Hassan Chapters 13, 20, 10 and 11
Mikhail Larionov Chapter 3
mrtnf Chapters 14 and 7
mszaro Chapter 14
Muhammad Zohaib
Chapters 14 and 2
Ehsan
Mykola Denysyuk Chapters 37 and 36
Nef10 Chapter 8
Nicolas Miari Chapter 45
Nikolai Ruhe Chapters 13 and 18
Nirav Bhatt Chapter 12
njuri Chapter 14
NobodyNada Chapters 45 and 8
NSNoob Chapters 5 and 13
ok404 Chapter 51
Orlando Chapters 36 and 13
Patrick Chapters 37, 13, 16, 19, 21, 18, 26 and 27
Paulo Fierro Chapters 36 and 14
pckill Chapter 47
Peter DeWeese Chapter 48
Peter N Lewis Chapter 45
phi Chapter 36
Rahul Chapter 29
RamenChef Chapter 13
Ravi Dhorajiya Chapter 17
Sanjay Mohnani Chapter 38
shuvo Chapter 35
Siddharth Sunil Chapter 50
Sietse Chapter 2
Spidy Chapter 15
Stephen Leppik Chapter 40
StrAbZ Chapters 1 and 37
Sujania Chapters 16, 19, 7, 46, 21, 15, 24, 26, 4 and 2
Sunil Sharma Chapter 13
Tamarous Chapter 51
Tapan Prakash Chapters 45 and 7
tbodt Chapters 39, 45, 14, 13, 34, 7, 15 and 51
ThatsJustCheesy Chapter 12
Thomas Tempelmann Chapter 45
Tricertops Chapters 45, 13, 34 and 8
user459460 Chapters 3, 26, 10, 41, 42, 31 and 43
william205 Chapter 15
Yevhen Dubinin Chapter 39

GoalKicker.com – Objective-C® Notes for Professionals 121

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