Calling a superclasses designated initialiser calls the subclasses - ios

Question

I have what seems like a straightforward enough issue, but I just have no idea why it's working the way it is.
I have a class Shape which has a subclass of Square.
When I call Square and call its designated initialiser, in self = [super init] it calls the super class. However when the superclass calls its designated initialiser, named the same as one of the subclasses, it calls the subclass.
What I end up with is an infinite loop of the subclass calling init on the superclass and that calling the subclasses initialiser.
How can I solve this issue? Should I make sure the names of my initialisers are different enough so this can't happen?
Shape.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#interface Shape : NSObject
#property (nonatomic) CGPoint position;
#property (nonatomic) float width;
#property (nonatomic) float height;
#property (nonatomic, readonly) float area;
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width andHeight:(float)height andPosition:(CGPoint)position;
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width andHeight:(float)height;
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width;
- (id)init;
- (NSString *)drawShape;
#end
-
Shape.m
#import "Shape.h"
#implementation Shape
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width andHeight:(float)height andPosition:(CGPoint)position
{
self = [super init];
if (self) {
self.width = width;
self.height = height;
self.position = position;
}
return self;
}
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width andHeight:(float)height
{
return [self initWithWidth:width andHeight:height andPosition:CGPointMake(100, 100)];
}
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width
{
return [self initWithWidth:width andHeight:1.0f andPosition:CGPointMake(100, 100)];
}
- (id)init
{
CGPoint defaultPoint = CGPointMake(100, 100);
return [self initWithWidth:1.0 andHeight:1.0 andPosition:defaultPoint];
}
- (NSString *)drawShape
{
NSString *outputShape = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"Drawing shape - (%.2f,%.2f), width - %f, height - %f", self.position.x, self.position.y, self.width, self.height];
NSLog(#"%#", outputShape);
return outputShape;
}
#end
-
Square.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import "Shape.h"
#interface Square : Shape
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width andPosition:(CGPoint)position;
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width andHeight:(float)height andPosition:(CGPoint)position;
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width andHeight:(float)height;
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width;
#end
-
Square.m
#import "Square.h"
#implementation Square
- (id) initWithWidth:(float)width andPosition:(CGPoint)position
{
self = [super init];
if (self) {
self.width = width;
self.height = width;
self.position = position;
}
return self;
}
// Returning the width as the width and height as you can't make a square with different sides
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width andHeight:(float)height andPosition:(CGPoint)position
{
return [self initWithWidth:width andPosition:position];
}
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width andHeight:(float)height
{
return [self initWithWidth:width andPosition:CGPointMake(100, 100)];
}
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width
{
return [self initWithWidth:width andPosition:CGPointMake(100, 100)];
}
- (NSString *)drawShape
{
NSString *outputShape = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"Drawing shape - (%.2f,%.2f), width - %.2f, height - %.2f", self.position.x, self.position.y, self.width, self.height];
NSLog(#"%#", outputShape);
return outputShape;
}
#end

Answer 1

The thing to do here is to reimplement -[Square initWithWidth:andPosition:] like:
- (id)initWithWidth:(float)width andPosition:(CGPoint)position
{
self = [super initWithWidth:width andHeight:width andPosition:position];
return self;
}