Found an NSZombie in my app... now what? - ios

I have a subclass of NSManagedObject with a few "integer 32" attributes that are really enums. These enums are defined in my model's .h file like this:
typedef enum {
AMOwningCompanyACME,
AMOwningCompanyABC,
AMOwningCompanyOther
} AMOwningCompany;
I need to show a table view that displays the value of each attribute of this custom object, so for each enum I have a method that looks like this to return string values:
-(NSArray*)stringsForAMOwningCompany
{
return [NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"ACME Co.", #"ABC Co.", #"Other", nil];
}
In my table view, I iterate through the attributes of my NSManagedObject (using NSEntityDescription's attributesByName and for each attribute I call a helper method that calls the appropriate "stringsFor" method to return the strings for that particular attribute:
-(NSArray*)getStringsArrayForAttribute:(NSString*)attributeName
{
SEL methodSelector = NSSelectorFromString([self methodNameForAttributeNamed:attributeName]);
NSInvocation* invocation = [NSInvocation invocationWithMethodSignature:[[AMProperty class] instanceMethodSignatureForSelector:methodSelector]];
[invocation setSelector:methodSelector];
[invocation setTarget:self.editingPole];
[invocation invoke];
NSArray* returnValue = nil;
[invocation getReturnValue:&returnValue];
return returnValue;
}
My table view's cellForRowAtIndexPath looks like this:
...
NSString* itemName = self.tableData[indexPath.row];
NSAttributeDescription* desc = itemAttributes[itemName];
NSString* cellIdentifier = [self cellIdentifierForAttribute:desc]; // checks the attribute type and returns a different custom cell identifier accordingly
if ([cellIdentifier isEqualToString:#"enumCell"])
{
// dequeue cell, customize it
UITableViewCell* enumCell = ...
...
NSArray* stringValues = [[NSArray alloc] initWithArray:[self getStringArrayForAttribute:itemName]];
int currentValue = [(NSNumber*)[self.editingPole valueForKey:itemName] intValue];
enumCell.detailTextLabel.text = (NSString*)stringValues[currentValue];
return enumCell;
}
...
For only one of the attributes, I keep getting a crash on the NSInvocation's return array:
-[__NSArrayI release]: message sent to deallocated instance 0x856a4b0
Using the Zombies Profiler, I see:
I am using ARC. How can I debug this further?

I ran into a very similar problem myself recently and it took me a while to figure out what I was doing wrong. An extra release is being issued here -- because your pointer returnValue is __strong (the default), ARC believes that the object is owned via that pointer, but that's not the case.
-[NSInvocation getReturnValue:] doesn't take ownership of it, and the "assignment" via the pointer's address bypasses the objc_storeStrong() that ARC would normally use.
The solution is simple: mark the pointer as __unsafe_unretained. This is the truth; the object is not retained via this pointer (as it would if it were __strong), and ARC must not release it here.

Related

create a method that sets textlabel.text to nsarray at index(x) while x<nsarray.count objective c

I have created an NSArray from a text file with
void arrayfromfile {
// get a reference to our file
NSString *myPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle]pathForResource:#"CalendarQuotes" ofType:#"txt"];
// read the contents into a string
NSString *myFile = [[NSString alloc]initWithContentsOfFile:myPath encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:nil];
// split our string into an array
NSArray *mySplit = [myFile componentsSeparatedByString:#"\n"];}
Now what I'd like to do is set label.text to mySplit[x] while x< mysplit.count and call it every time a user swipes up.
setlabeltextmethod quote {
if x<mySplit.count {
label.text = mySplit objectatindex x
x+=1
else { label.text = #"thats it folks" }
}
What I'm having trouble with is accessing mySplit from the quote so I can manipulate it to give me the quote at index x.
When I tried to access it from my swipe method:
- (IBAction)swipeUp:(id)sender {
[self doAnimationUp];
NSLog (#"swipedUp");
NSLog(#"array%#" , [mySplit objectAtIndex:0]);
NSLog(#"arraycreated");
//I'm using NSLog for debug purposes but this is where I would setlabeltext.text to mySplit objectAtIndex
}
I get array[null].
Your mySplit variable is local to arrayfromfile, so once that method returns the variable has gone. There is more than one approach to solving this. One is making it an instance variable, that is a variable that belongs to your current class instance and is visible to every instance method. Start you implementation like this:
#implementation MyClassName
{
NSArray *mySplit;
}
Now set the variable in the instance method arrayfromfile and read it in the instance method swipeUp - both calls must be made in the same instance of your class, each instance has its own set of instance variables.
Other options include adding a property to the class or, if you must, a global variable of some kind.
HTH

iOS: pointer reference to an array

I have a table view with a search, and search scope buttons with two possible scopes. The table is empty until a search is executed. Each scope has it's own mutable array for the table's data source, we'll say scopeA_array and scopeB_array. To simplify some methods, I'm trying to create a generic pointer reference to whichever array is the currently active scope. So I tried this:
#property (nonatomic, assign) NSMutableArray *tableDataArray;
In viewDidLoad, I assign it to the default selected scope.
_tableDataArray = _scopeA_array;
I can log the memory address of each array, they're both the same.
However, if I execute a search, _scopeA_array gets populated. Then in my numberOfRowsInSection method, I take the count of _tableDataArray but it's empty. I log the addresses again, both are different.
How do I create an array property that just references an array, and always points to the same object in memory even if it changes?
EDIT: A simplified way to test this, with the following lines of code, would like a way for tableDataArray to have the contents of testArray, even though the contents of testArray are assigned after:
NSArray *testArray = [NSArray new];
NSArray *tableDataArray = [testArray copy];
testArray = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"my", #"test", #"array", nil];
NSLog(#"table data array: %#", tableDataArray);
// logs empty array
I think the best approach is use a method to return conditionally the array for the current scope. So you just always use this method to populate your UITableView
- (NSMutableArray*) tableArray
{
return [self isScopeA] ? _scopeA_array : _scopeB_array;
}
How do I create an array property that just references an array, and always points to the same object in memory even if it changes?
If you want to track changes to a variable then you use a pointer to the variable rather than a pointer to a single array instance. E.g.:
#implementation MyController
{
__strong NSArray* *_currentDataPtr;
NSArray* _dataA;
NSArray* _dataB;
}
- (id)init
{
if (self = [super init])
{
_currentDataPtr = &_dataA; // Ensure _currentDataPtr is never NULL
}
return self;
}
- (void)setSearchScope:(NSInteger)searchScope
{
switch (searchScope)
{
default :
NSAssert(NO, #"");
case 0 :
_currentDataPtr = &_dataA;
break;
case 1 :
_currentDataPtr = &_dataB;
break;
}
}
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView*)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
return [*_currentDataPtr count];
}
If you want it to be a property then implement a property getter that dereferences the pointer:
#property (nonatomic, readonly) NSArray* currentData;
- (NSArray*)currentData { return *_currentDataPtr; }

Creating delegates on the spot with blocks

I love blocks and it makes me sad when I can't use them. In particular, this happens mostly every time I use delegates (e.g.: with UIKit classes, mostly pre-block functionality).
So I wonder... Is it possible -using the crazy power of ObjC-, to do something like this?
// id _delegate; // Most likely declared as class variable or it will be released
_delegate = [DelegateFactory delegateOfProtocol:#protocol(SomeProtocol)];
_delegate performBlock:^{
// Do something
} onSelector:#selector(someProtocolMethod)]; // would execute the given block when the given selector is called on the dynamic delegate object.
theObject.delegate = (id<SomeProtocol>)_delegate;
// Profit!
performBlock:onSelector:
If YES, how? And is there a reason why we shouldn't be doing this as much as possible?
Edit
Looks like it IS possible. Current answers focus on the first part of the question, which is how. But it'd be nice to have some discussion on the "should we do it" part.
Okay, I finally got around to putting WoolDelegate up on GitHub. Now it should only take me another month to write a proper README (although I guess this is a good start).
The delegate class itself is pretty straightforward. It simply maintains a dictionary mapping SELs to Block. When an instance recieves a message to which it doesn't respond, it ends up in forwardInvocation: and looks in the dictionary for the selector:
- (void)forwardInvocation:(NSInvocation *)anInvocation {
SEL sel = [anInvocation selector];
GenericBlock handler = [self handlerForSelector:sel];
If it's found, the Block's invocation function pointer is pulled out and passed along to the juicy bits:
IMP handlerIMP = BlockIMP(handler);
[anInvocation Wool_invokeUsingIMP:handlerIMP];
}
(The BlockIMP() function, along with other Block-probing code, is thanks to Mike Ash. Actually, a lot of this project is built on stuff I learned from his Friday Q&A's. If you haven't read those essays, you're missing out.)
I should note that this goes through the full method resolution machinery every time a particular message is sent; there's a speed hit there. The alternative is the path that Erik H. and EMKPantry each took, which is creating a new clas for each delegate object that you need, and using class_addMethod(). Since every instance of WoolDelegate has its own dictionary of handlers, we don't need to do that, but on the other hand there's no way to "cache" the lookup or the invocation. A method can only be added to a class, not to an instance.
I did it this way for two reasons: this was an excercise to see if I could work out the part that's coming next -- the hand-off from NSInvocation to Block invocation -- and the creation of a new class for every needed instance simply seemed inelegant to me. Whether it's less elegant than my solution, I will leave to each reader's judgement.
Moving on, the meat of this procedure is actually in the NSInvocation category that's found in the project. This utilizes libffi to call a function that's unknown until runtime -- the Block's invocation -- with arguments that are also unknown until runtime (which are accessible via the NSInvocation). Normally, this is not possible, for the same reason that a va_list cannot be passed on: the compiler has to know how many arguments there are and how big they are. libffi contains assembler for each platform that knows/is based on those platforms' calling conventions.
There's three steps here: libffi needs a list of the types of the arguments to the function that's being called; it needs the argument values themselves put into a particular format; then the function (the Block's invocation pointer) needs to be invoked via libffi and the return value put back into the NSInvocation.
The real work for the first part is handled largely by a function which is again written by Mike Ash, called from Wool_buildFFIArgTypeList. libffi has internal structs that it uses to describe the types of function arguments. When preparing a call to a function, the library needs a list of pointers to these structures. The NSMethodSignature for the NSInvocation allows access of each argument's encoding string; translating from there to the correct ffi_type is handled by a set of if/else lookups:
arg_types[i] = libffi_type_for_objc_encoding([sig getArgumentTypeAtIndex:actual_arg_idx]);
...
if(str[0] == #encode(type)[0]) \
{ \
if(sizeof(type) == 1) \
return &ffi_type_sint8; \
else if(sizeof(type) == 2) \
return &ffi_type_sint16; \
Next, libffi wants pointers to the argument values themselves. This is done in Wool_buildArgValList: get the size of each argument, again from the NSMethodSignature, and allocate a chunk of memory that size, then return the list:
NSUInteger arg_size;
NSGetSizeAndAlignment([sig getArgumentTypeAtIndex:actual_arg_idx],
&arg_size,
NULL);
/* Get a piece of memory that size and put its address in the list. */
arg_list[i] = [self Wool_allocate:arg_size];
/* Put the value into the allocated spot. */
[self getArgument:arg_list[i] atIndex:actual_arg_idx];
(An aside: there's several notes in the code about skipping over the SEL, which is the (hidden) second passed argument to any method invocation. The Block's invocation pointer doesn't have a slot to hold the SEL; it just has itself as the first argument, and the rest are the "normal" arguments. Since the Block, as written in client code, could never access that argument anyways (it doesn't exist at the time), I decided to ignore it.)
libffi now needs to do some "prep"; as long as that succeeds (and space for the return value can be allocated), the invocation function pointer can now be "called", and the return value can be set:
ffi_call(&inv_cif, (genericfunc)theIMP, ret_val, arg_vals);
if( ret_val ){
[self setReturnValue:ret_val];
free(ret_val);
}
There's some demonstrations of the functionality in main.m in the project.
Finally, as for your question of "should this be done?", I think the answer is "yes, as long as it makes you more productive". WoolDelegate is completely generic, and an instance can act like any fully written-out class. My intention for it, though, was to make simple, one-off delegates -- that only need one or two methods, and don't need to live past their delegators -- less work than writing a whole new class, and more legible/maintainable than sticking some delegate methods into a view controller because it's the easiest place to put them. Taking advantage of the runtime and the language's dynamism like this hopefully can increase your code's readability, in the same way, e.g., Block-based NSNotification handlers do.
I just put together a little project that lets you do just this...
#interface EJHDelegateObject : NSObject
+ (id)delegateObjectForProtocol:(Protocol*) protocol;
#property (nonatomic, strong) Protocol *protocol;
- (void)addImplementation:(id)blockImplementation forSelector:(SEL)selector;
#end
#implementation EJHDelegateObject
static NSInteger counter;
+ (id)delegateObjectForProtocol:(Protocol *)protocol
{
NSString *className = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%s%#%i",protocol_getName(protocol),#"_EJH_implementation_", counter++];
Class protocolClass = objc_allocateClassPair([EJHDelegateObject class], [className cStringUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding], 0);
class_addProtocol(protocolClass, protocol);
objc_registerClassPair(protocolClass);
EJHDelegateObject *object = [[protocolClass alloc] init];
object.protocol = protocol;
return object;
}
- (void)addImplementation:(id)blockImplementation forSelector:(SEL)selector
{
unsigned int outCount;
struct objc_method_description *methodDescriptions = protocol_copyMethodDescriptionList(self.protocol, NO, YES, &outCount);
struct objc_method_description description;
BOOL descriptionFound = NO;
for (int i = 0; i < outCount; i++){
description = methodDescriptions[i];
if (description.name == selector){
descriptionFound = YES;
break;
}
}
if (descriptionFound){
class_addMethod([self class], selector, imp_implementationWithBlock(blockImplementation), description.types);
}
}
#end
And using an EJHDelegateObject:
self.alertViewDelegate = [EJHDelegateObject delegateObjectForProtocol:#protocol(UIAlertViewDelegate)];
[self.alertViewDelegate addImplementation:^(id _self, UIAlertView* alertView, NSInteger buttonIndex){
NSLog(#"%# dismissed with index %i", alertView, buttonIndex);
} forSelector:#selector(alertView:didDismissWithButtonIndex:)];
UIAlertView *alertView = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"Example" message:#"My delegate is an EJHDelegateObject" delegate:self.alertViewDelegate cancelButtonTitle:#"Cancel" otherButtonTitles:#"OK", nil];
[alertView show];
Edit: This is what I've come up after having understood your requirement. This is just a quick hack, an idea to get you started, it's not properly implemented, nor is it tested. It is supposed to work for delegate methods that take the sender as their only argument. It works It is supposed to work with normal and struct-returning delegate methods.
typedef void *(^UBDCallback)(id);
typedef void(^UBDCallbackStret)(void *, id);
void *UBDDelegateMethod(UniversalBlockDelegate *self, SEL _cmd, id sender)
{
UBDCallback cb = [self blockForSelector:_cmd];
return cb(sender);
}
void UBDelegateMethodStret(void *retadrr, UniversalBlockDelegate *self, SEL _cmd, id sender)
{
UBDCallbackStret cb = [self blockForSelector:_cmd];
cb(retaddr, sender);
}
#interface UniversalBlockDelegate: NSObject
- (BOOL)addDelegateSelector:(SEL)sel isStret:(BOOL)stret methodSignature:(const char *)mSig block:(id)block;
#end
#implementation UniversalBlockDelegate {
SEL selectors[128];
id blocks[128];
int count;
}
- (id)blockForSelector:(SEL)sel
{
int idx = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
if (selectors[i] == sel) {
return blocks[i];
}
}
return nil;
}
- (void)dealloc
{
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
[blocks[i] release];
}
[super dealloc];
}
- (BOOL)addDelegateSelector:(SEL)sel isStret:(BOOL)stret methodSignature:(const char *)mSig block:(id)block
{
if (count >= 128) return NO;
selectors[count] = sel;
blocks[count++] = [block copy];
class_addMethod(self.class, sel, (IMP)(stret ? UBDDelegateMethodStret : UBDDelegateMethod), mSig);
return YES;
}
#end
Usage:
UIWebView *webView = [[UIWebView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
UniversalBlockDelegate *d = [[UniversalBlockDelegate alloc] init];
webView.delegate = d;
[d addDelegateSelector:#selector(webViewDidFinishLoading:) isStret:NO methodSignature:"v#:#" block:^(id webView) {
NSLog(#"Web View '%#' finished loading!", webView);
}];
[webView loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://google.com"]]];

heightForRowAtIndexPath occasionally crashes when loading, NSCoding - iOS

Some information about the way I am saving my data: I have an array of View Controllers that are added and deleted by the user (this is basically a note taking app and the View Controllers are folders). The View Controllers have several dynamic properties that the app needs to save as well as the notes array within them, and then the Note objects themselves have a few properties that need to be saved. The View Controllers and the Notes both of course have the proper NSCoding stuff, this is the one on the View Controller for example:
- (void) encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)encoder {
[encoder encodeObject:self.folderName forKey:#"lvcTitle"];
[encoder encodeObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:self.myPosition] forKey:#"myPosition"];
[encoder encodeObject:self.notes forKey:#"notes"];
}
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)decoder {
self.folderName = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:#"lvcTitle"];
NSNumber *gottenPosition = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:#"myPosition"];
int gottenPositionInt = [gottenPosition intValue];
self.myPosition = gottenPositionInt;
self.notes = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:#"notes"];
return self; }
The array of Controllers belongs to a Singleton class. NSCoding is pretty confusing to me even though it's considered to be simple stuff, but so far I've had success with only telling the Singleton to save the Controllers array - which then (successfully) saves all of the contained properties of the View Controllers, their properties and all of the Notes' properties as well. Here is the code in the Singleton:
- (void) saveDataToDisk:(id)object key:(NSString *)key {
NSString *path = [self pathForDataFile];
NSMutableDictionary *rootObject;
rootObject = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
[rootObject setValue:object forKey:key];
[NSKeyedArchiver archiveRootObject:rootObject toFile:path]; }
- (void) loadDataFromDisk {
NSString *path = [self pathForDataFile];
NSDictionary *rootObject;
rootObject = [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithFile:path];
if ([rootObject valueForKey:#"controllers"] != nil) {
self.controllers = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:[rootObject valueForKey:#"controllers"]];
firstRun = false;
LabeledViewController *lastOneThere = [self.controllers objectAtIndex:self.controllers.count-1];
lastOneThere.isFolderAddView = TRUE;
}else{
firstRun = true;
}
}
I then call the save method several times in the Folder View Controllers:
[singleton saveDataToDisk];
And this will work well several times, until I randomly get a crash right when the app is loading up. The culprit is heightForRowAtIndexPath:
- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
Note *currentNote = [self.notes objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
if (currentNote.associatedCellIsSelected) {
return currentNote.myHeight + NOTE_BUTTON_VIEW_HEIGHT;
}
return NORMAL_CELL_FINISHING_HEIGHT; }
I get the following error:
2012-06-07 08:28:33.694 ViewTry[1415:207] -[__NSCFString associatedCellIsSelected]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x8904710
2012-06-07 08:28:33.696 ViewTry[1415:207] *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[__NSCFString associatedCellIsSelected]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x8904710'
*** First throw call stack:
I understand that "__NSCFString" and "unrecognized selector sent to instance" means that there is a string somewhere there shouldn't be, as associatedCellIsSelected is a bool. However, if I only return "currentNote.myHeight" in heightForRow, I also get the same __NSCF error with myHeight, which is a float. If I take out heightForRow all together, everything works except for the appropriate height definitions.
BTW, the table view that heightForRowAtIndexPath is referencing is made in loadView AFTER the notes array is made and populated. I just don't understand why this error would only pop up every once in a while (like 5-10 opens, savings, closings and reopenings of app), seemingly random - I cannot find the pattern that causes this behavior. Any pointers?
Sorry for the mess, I'm new to iOS programming and I'm sure I'm doing a lot of things wrong here.
Edit - Also, once the app has crashed, it stays crashed every time I reopen it (unless I disable heightForRow) until I uninstall and reinstall it.
When you see an "unrecognized selector" error and the receiver type is not the kind of object that you coded (in this case __NSCFString instead of Note), the odds are that you have a problem where the object you intended to use has been prematurely released and its address space is being reused to allocate the new object.
The fix depends on tracking down where the extra release is happening (or retain is not happening). If you can show the #property declaration for notes it might shed more light on the situation.
One quick thing to do is choose Product->Analyze from the menu and fix anything it flags. It won't catch everything but it's a good sanity check to start.

issue with a selector

I'm running into problems with a selector. I'm trying to dynamically name an array, winnerArray1, winnerArray2, winnerArray3, etc.
The variable someVariable is in a loop that increases so that will get incremented.
I get unrecognized selector sent to instance
int someVariable = 1;
NSArray *winnerArray;
NSString *tempLoopString;
while(someVariable < 4){
tempLoopString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"winnerArray%d", someVariable];
SEL selector = NSSelectorFromString(tempLoopString);
winnerArray = [self performSelector:selector];
if ([winnerArray do_stuff]) {
do stuff here
}
someVariable++
}
You can't refer to a variable by name like that.
You should look into using key value coding. With that, you can interrogate a property of some object using the method valueForKey:

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