CS193P - Lecture 3

iPhone Application Development

Custom Classes
Object Lifecycle
Autorelease
Properties

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 1

 Announcements
• Assignments 1A and 1B due Wednesday 1/13 at 11:59 PM
■ Enrolled Stanford students can email [email protected]
with any questions
■ Submit early! Instructions on the website...

■ Delete the “build” directory manually, Xcode won’t do it

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 2

 Announcements
• Assignments 2A and 2B due Wednesday 1/20 at 11:59 PM
■ 2A: Continuation of Foundation tool
■ Add custom class
■ Basic memory management

■ 2B: Beginning of first iPhone application

■ Topics to be covered on Thursday, 1/14
■ Assignment contains extensive walkthrough

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 3

 Enrolled students & iTunes U
• Lectures have begun showing up on iTunes U
• Lead time is longer than last year
• Come to class!!
■ Lectures may not post in time for assignments

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 4

 Office Hours
• Paul’s office hours: Thursday 2-4, Gates B26B
• David’s office hours: Mondays 4-6pm: Gates 360

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 5

 Today’s Topics
• Questions from Assignment 1A or 1B?
• Creating Custom Classes
• Object Lifecycle
• Autorelease
• Objective-C Properties

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 6

 Custom Classes

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 7

 Design Phase
• Create a class
■ Person
• Determine the superclass
■ NSObject (in this case)
• What properties should it have?
■ Name, age, whether they can vote
• What actions can it perform?
■ Cast a ballot

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 8

 Defining a class
A public header and a private implementation

Header File Implementation File

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 9

 Defining a class
A public header and a private implementation

Header File Implementation File

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 9

 Class interface declared in header file
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Person : NSObject

{
// instance variables
NSString *name;
int age;
}

// method declarations
- (NSString *)name;
- (void)setName:(NSString *)value;

- (int)age;
- (void)setAge:(int)age;

- (BOOL)canLegallyVote;
- (void)castBallot;
@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 10

 Defining a class
A public header and a private implementation

Header File Implementation File

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 11

 Implementing custom class
• Implement setter/getter methods
• Implement action methods

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 12

 Class Implementation
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (int)age {
return age;
}
- (void)setAge:(int)value {
age = value;
}

//... and other methods

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 13

 Calling your own methods
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (BOOL)canLegallyVote {

- (void)castBallot {

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 14

 Calling your own methods
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (BOOL)canLegallyVote {
return ([self age] >= 18);
}

- (void)castBallot {

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 14

 Calling your own methods
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (BOOL)canLegallyVote {
return ([self age] >= 18);
}

- (void)castBallot {
if ([self canLegallyVote]) {
// do voting stuff
} else {
NSLog (@“I’m not allowed to vote!”);
}
}

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 14

 Superclass methods
• As we just saw, objects have an implicit variable named “self”
■ Like “this” in Java and C++
• Can also invoke superclass methods using “super”
- (void)doSomething {
// Call superclass implementation first
[super doSomething];

// Then do our custom behavior

int foo = bar;
// ...
}

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 15

 Object Lifecycle

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 16

 Object Lifecycle
• Creating objects
• Memory management
• Destroying objects

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 17

 Object Creation
• Two step process
■ allocate memory to store the object
■ initialize object state

+ alloc
■ Class method that knows how much memory is needed
- init
■ Instance method to set initial values, perform other setup

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 18

 Create = Allocate + Initialize
Person *person = nil;

person = [[Person alloc] init];

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 19

 Implementing your own -init method
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (id)init {
// allow superclass to initialize its state first
if (self = [super init]) {
age = 0;
name = @“Bob”;

// do other initialization...
}

return self;
}

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 20

 Multiple init methods
• Classes may define multiple init methods
- (id)init;
- (id)initWithName:(NSString *)name;
- (id)initWithName:(NSString *)name age:(int)age;

• Less specific ones typically call more specific with default values
- (id)init {
return [self initWithName:@“No Name”];
}

- (id)initWithName:(NSString *)name {
return [self initWithName:name age:0];
}

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 21

 Finishing Up With an Object
Person *person = nil;

person = [[Person alloc] init];

[person setName:@“Jimmy Jones”];

[person setAge:32];

[person castBallot];
[person doSomethingElse];

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 22

 Finishing Up With an Object
Person *person = nil;

person = [[Person alloc] init];

[person setName:@“Jimmy Jones”];

[person setAge:32];

[person castBallot];
[person doSomethingElse];

// What do we do with person when we’re done?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 22

 Memory Management

Allocation Destruction
C malloc free

Objective-C alloc dealloc

• Calls must be balanced

■ Otherwise your program may leak or crash
• However, you’ll never call -dealloc directly
■ One exception, we’ll see in a bit...

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 23

 Reference Counting
• Every object has a retain count
■ Defined on NSObject
■ As long as retain count is > 0, object is alive and valid

• +alloc and -copy create objects with retain count == 1

• -retain increments retain count
• -release decrements retain count
• When retain count reaches 0, object is destroyed
• -dealloc method invoked automatically
■ One-way street, once you’re in -dealloc there’s no turning back

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 24

 Balanced Calls
Person *person = nil;

person = [[Person alloc] init];

[person setName:@“Jimmy Jones”];

[person setAge:32];

[person castBallot];
[person doSomethingElse];

// When we’re done with person, release it

[person release]; // person will be destroyed here

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 25

 Reference counting in action
Person *person = [[Person alloc] init];

Retain count begins at 1 with +alloc

[person retain];

Retain count increases to 2 with -retain

[person release];

Retain count decreases to 1 with -release

[person release];

Retain count decreases to 0, -dealloc automatically called

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 26

 Messaging deallocated objects
Person *person = [[Person alloc] init];
// ...
[person release]; // Object is deallocated

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 27

 Messaging deallocated objects
Person *person = [[Person alloc] init];
// ...
[person release]; // Object is deallocated

[person doSomething]; // Crash!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 27

 Messaging deallocated objects
Person *person = [[Person alloc] init];
// ...
[person release]; // Object is deallocated

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 27

 Messaging deallocated objects
Person *person = [[Person alloc] init];
// ...
[person release]; // Object is deallocated
person = nil;

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 27

 Messaging deallocated objects
Person *person = [[Person alloc] init];
// ...
[person release]; // Object is deallocated
person = nil;

[person doSomething]; // No effect

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 27

 Implementing a -dealloc method
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (void)dealloc {
// Do any cleanup that’s necessary
// ...

// when we’re done, call super to clean us up

[super dealloc];
}

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 28

 Object Lifecycle Recap
• Objects begin with a retain count of 1
• Increase and decrease with -retain and -release
• When retain count reaches 0, object deallocated automatically
• You never call dealloc explicitly in your code
■ Exception is calling -[super dealloc]
■ You only deal with alloc, copy, retain, release

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 29

 Object Ownership
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Person : NSObject

{
// instance variables
NSString *name; // Person class “owns” the name
int age;
}

// method declarations
- (NSString *)name;
- (void)setName:(NSString *)value;

- (int)age;
- (void)setAge:(int)age;

- (BOOL)canLegallyVote;
- (void)castBallot;
@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 30

 Object Ownership
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 31

 Object Ownership
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (NSString *)name {
return name;
}
- (void)setName:(NSString *)newName {

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 31

 Object Ownership
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (NSString *)name {
return name;
}
- (void)setName:(NSString *)newName {
if (name != newName) {
[name release];
name = [newName retain];
// name’s retain count has been bumped up by 1
}
}

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 31

 Object Ownership
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (NSString *)name {
return name;
}
- (void)setName:(NSString *)newName {

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 31

 Object Ownership
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (NSString *)name {
return name;
}
- (void)setName:(NSString *)newName {
if (name != newName) {
[name release];
name = [newName copy];
// name has retain count of 1, we own it
}
}

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 31

 Releasing Instance Variables
#import "Person.h"

@implementation Person

- (void)dealloc {
// Do any cleanup that’s necessary
[name release];

// when we’re done, call super to clean us up

[super dealloc];
}

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 32

 Autorelease

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 33

 Returning a newly created object
- (NSString *)fullName {
NSString *result;

result = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@“%@ %@”,

firstName, lastName];

return result;
}

Wrong: result is leaked!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 34

 Returning a newly created object
- (NSString *)fullName {
NSString *result;

result = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@“%@ %@”,

firstName, lastName];
[result release];

return result;
}

Wrong: result is released too early!

Method returns bogus value

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 34

 Returning a newly created object
- (NSString *)fullName {
NSString *result;

result = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@“%@ %@”,

firstName, lastName];
[result autorelease];

return result;
}

Just right: result is released, but not right away

Caller gets valid object and could retain if needed

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 34

 Autoreleasing Objects
• Calling -autorelease flags an object to be sent release at some
point in the future
• Let’s you fulfill your retain/release obligations while allowing an
object some additional time to live
• Makes it much more convenient to manage memory
• Very useful in methods which return a newly created object

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 35

 Method Names & Autorelease
• Methods whose names includes alloc, copy, or new
return a retained object that the caller needs to release
NSMutableString *string = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
// We are responsible for calling -release or -autorelease
[string autorelease];

• All other methods return autoreleased objects

NSMutableString *string = [NSMutableString string];
// The method name doesn’t indicate that we need to release it
// So don’t- we’re cool!

• This is a convention- follow it in methods you define!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 36

 How does -autorelease work?
• Object is added to current autorelease pool
• Autorelease pools track objects scheduled to be released
■ When the pool itself is released, it sends -release to all its objects
• UIKit automatically wraps a pool around every event dispatch

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 37

 Autorelease Pools (in pictures)

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 38

 Autorelease Pools (in pictures)

Pool

Pool created
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 38

 Autorelease Pools (in pictures)

Pool Objects autoreleased

here go into pool

Pool created
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 38

 Autorelease Pools (in pictures)

Pool Objects autoreleased

here go into pool

Pool created
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 38

 Autorelease Pools (in pictures)

Pool Objects autoreleased

here go into pool

[object
autorelease];

Pool created
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 38

 Autorelease Pools (in pictures)

Pool Objects autoreleased

here go into pool

Pool created
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 38

 Autorelease Pools (in pictures)

Pool Objects autoreleased

here go into pool

Pool created
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 38

 Autorelease Pools (in pictures)

Pool Objects autoreleased

here go into pool

Pool released

Pool created
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 38

 Autorelease Pools (in pictures)
[object release];

Pool [object release];

Objects autoreleased
here go into pool

[object release];
Pool released

Pool created
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 38

 Autorelease Pools (in pictures)

Pool Objects autoreleased

here go into pool

Pool released

Pool created
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 38

 Hanging Onto an Autoreleased Object
• Many methods return autoreleased objects
■ Remember the naming conventions...
■ They’re hanging out in the pool and will get released later

• If you need to hold onto those objects you need to retain them
■ Bumps up the retain count before the release happens

name = [NSMutableString string];

// We want to name to remain valid!

[name retain];

// ...
// Eventually, we’ll release it (maybe in our -dealloc?)
[name release];

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 39

 Side Note: Garbage Collection
• Autorelease is not garbage collection
• Objective-C on iPhone OS does not have garbage collection

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 40

 Objective-C Properties

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 41

 Properties
• Provide access to object attributes
• Shortcut to implementing getter/setter methods
• Also allow you to specify:
■ read-only versus read-write access
■ memory management policy

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 42

 Defining Properties
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Person : NSObject

{
// instance variables
NSString *name;
int age;
}
// method declarations
- (NSString *) name;
- (void)setName:(NSString *)value;
- (int) age;
- (void)setAge:(int)age;
- (BOOL) canLegallyVote;

- (void)castBallot;
@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 43

 Defining Properties
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Person : NSObject

{
// instance variables
NSString *name;
int age;
}
// method declarations
- (NSString *) name;
- (void)setName:(NSString *)value;
- (int) age;
- (void)setAge:(int)age;
- (BOOL) canLegallyVote;

- (void)castBallot;
@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 43

 Defining Properties
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Person : NSObject

{
// instance variables
NSString *name;
int age;
}
// method declarations
- (NSString *) name;
- (void)setName:(NSString *)value;
- (int) age;
- (void)setAge:(int)age;
- (BOOL) canLegallyVote;

- (void)castBallot;
@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 43

 Defining Properties
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Person : NSObject

{
// instance variables
NSString *name;
int age;
}

// property declarations
@property int age ;
@property (copy) NSString * name;
@property (readonly) BOOL canLegallyVote ;

- (void)castBallot;
@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 43

 Defining Properties
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Person : NSObject

{
// instance variables
NSString *name;
int age;
}

// property declarations
@property int age;
@property (copy) NSString *name;
@property (readonly) BOOL canLegallyVote;

- (void)castBallot;
@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 44

 Synthesizing Properties
@implementation Person

- (int)age {
return age;
}
- (void)setAge:(int)value {
age = value;
}
- (NSString *)name {
return name;
}
- (void)setName:(NSString *)value {
if (value != name) {
[name release];
name = [value copy];
}
}
- (void)canLegallyVote { ...

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 45

 Synthesizing Properties
@implementation Person

- (int)age {
return age;
}
- (void)setAge:(int)value {
age = value;
}
- (NSString *)name {
return name;
}
- (void)setName:(NSString *)value {
if (value != name) {
[name release];
name = [value copy];
}
}
- (void)canLegallyVote { ...

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 45

 Synthesizing Properties
@implementation Person

- (int)age
age {
return age;
}
- (void)setAge:(int)value {
age = value;
}
- (NSString *)name
name {
return name;
}
- (void)setName:(NSString *)value {
if (value != name) {
[name release];
name = [value copy];
}
}
- (void)canLegallyVote { ...

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 45

 Synthesizing Properties
@implementation Person

@synthesize age;
@synthesize name;
- (BOOL)canLegallyVote {
return (age > 17);
}

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 46

 Property Attributes
• Read-only versus read-write
! @property int age; // read-write by default
@property (readonly) BOOL canLegallyVote;

• Memory management policies (only for object properties)

@property (assign) NSString *name; // pointer assignment
@property (retain) NSString *name; // retain called
@property (copy) NSString *name; // copy called

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 47

 Property Names vs. Instance Variables
• Property name can be different than instance variable
@interface Person : NSObject {
int numberOfYearsOld;
}

@property int age;

@end

@implementation Person

@synthesize age = numberOfYearsOld;

@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 48

 Properties
• Mix and match synthesized and implemented properties
@implementation Person
@synthesize age;
@synthesize name;

- (void)setAge:(int)value {
age = value;

// now do something with the new age value...

}

@end

• Setter method explicitly implemented

• Getter method still synthesized

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 49

 Properties In Practice
• Newer APIs use @property
• Older APIs use getter/setter methods
• Properties used heavily throughout UIKit APIs
■ Not so much with Foundation APIs
• You can use either approach
■ Properties mean writing less code, but “magic” can sometimes
be non-obvious

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 50

 Dot Syntax and self
• When used in custom methods, be careful with dot syntax for
properties defined in your class
• References to properties and ivars behave very differently
@interface Person : NSObject
{
NSString *name;
}
@property (copy) NSString *name;
@end

@implementation Person
- (void)doSomething {
name = @“Fred”; // accesses ivar directly!
self.name = @“Fred”; // calls accessor method
}

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 51

 Common Pitfall with Dot Syntax
What will happen when this code executes?
@implementation Person
- (void)setAge:(int)newAge {
self.age = newAge;
}
@end

This is equivalent to:

@implementation Person
- (void)setAge:(int)newAge {
[self setAge:newAge]; // Infinite loop!
}
@end

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 52

 Further Reading
• Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language
■ “Defining a Class”
■ “Declared Properties”

• Memory Management Programming Guide for Cocoa

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 53

 Questions?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 54