Can I reduce code in repeat declarations? - ios

Question

Is there a way to reduce code for repeat declarations in Obj-C?
E.g.:
I have
localNotification.fireDate = self.dueDate;
localNotification.timeZone = [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone];
localNotification.alertBody = self.text;
localNotification.soundName = UILocalNotificationDefaultSoundName;
Can it be simplified to something like this?
localNotification
.fireDate = self.dueDate;
.timeZone = [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone];
.alertBody = self.text;
.soundName = UILocalNotificationDefaultSoundName;
Thanks!

Answer 1

You could use Key-Value-Coding. First pack the values into a dictionary with the property names as keys
NSDictionary *parameters = #{#"fireDate": self.dueDate,
#"timeZone":[NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone],
#"alertBody":self.text,
#"soundName": UILocalNotificationDefaultSoundName }
, than you can easily enumerate the keys and objects with a block.
[parameters enumerateKeysAndObjectsUsingBlock: ^(id key,
id object,
BOOL *stop)
{
[localNotification setValue:object forKey:key];
}];
If you would use this code over and over again, I'd create a category on NSNotification wth an method that takes the dictionary and dies the enumeration.
Than you can simply use
[localNotification setValuesForKeysWithDictionary:parameters];
docs
Of course you can write it even shorter:
[localNotification setValuesForKeysWithDictionary:#{#"fireDate": self.dueDate,
#"timeZone":[NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone],
#"alertBody":self.text,
#"soundName": UILocalNotificationDefaultSoundName }];
Now it is nearly as compact as the proposed syntax.

Answer 2

The only way would be to declare a method that takes the parameters you are wanting to set.
-(void)notification:(UILocalNotification *)notification setFireDate:(NSDate *)date
setAlertBody:(NSString *)alertBody {
notification.fireDate = date;
notification.alertBody = alertBody;
notification.timeZone = [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone];
notification.soundName = UILocalNotificationDefaultSoundName;
}
The second two lines could be considered setting up a "default". Change those lines to whatever a default value you'd want. Then...
UILocalNotification *myNotification = ...
NSDate *tenMinutesAway = [NSDate ...
[self notification:myNotification setFireDate:tenMinutesAway setAlertBody:#"Hello world!"];
You could also look at subclassing UILocalNotification and in the -init method set up a bunch of default behavior there, which would save you ever having to type .soundName and .timeZone again