Quick question: I use lots of NSObject derived classes and am wondering how to properly cleanup class properties that may own instances of other classes (in the snippet below this is an array of custom class instances). Is my usage of new and finalize below correct?
My understanding is that new is a convenience method that calls both alloc and init, and finalize gets called before dealloc - at least this is what I have gleaned from reading the docs. Do I have this right?
Thanks for any tips/best practices, etc!
- (id)new {
waffleArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:kCellCount];
for (int i = 0; i < kCellCount; i++) {
WaffleCell * cell = [WaffleCell new];
[waffleArray addObject:cell];
}
return self;
}
// clean up
- (void)finalize {
[waffleArray removeAllObjects];
waffleArray = nil;
[super finalize];
}
new on NSObject is a class method, not an instance method as you have it. Also I don't really see why you'd overload new. It would be more common to overload init so something like this:
- (id)init {
if ((self = [super init])) {
waffleArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:kCellCount];
for (int i = 0; i < kCellCount; i++) {
WaffleCell * cell = [WaffleCell new];
[waffleArray addObject:cell];
}
}
return self;
}
As for finalize, you really don't need to do that. This is what Apple says about it:
The garbage collector invokes this method on the receiver before disposing of the memory it uses. When garbage collection is enabled, this method is invoked instead of dealloc.
With ARC enabled you wouldn't need to do anything and since the garbage collector will not be running anyway, finalize won't get called anyway. ARC will automatically generate code which will release waffleArray in dealloc for you, which is enough for proper memory management in this case because waffleArray's retain count will then drop to 0, be deallocated itself which will go and release the objects in the array.
Related
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"]]];
Suppose in my Database Manager which is singleton.
+ (SWDatabaseManager *)retrieveManager
{
#synchronized(self)
{
if (!sharedSingleton)
{
sharedSingleton = [[SWDatabaseManager alloc] init];
}
return sharedSingleton;
}
}
- (NSArray *)getProductDetails:(NSString *)someString
{
NSArray *temp = [self getRowsForQuery:someString];
return temp;
}
- (NSArray *)getRowsForQuery:(NSString *)sql
{
sqlite3_stmt *statement=nil;
NSMutableArray *arrayResults = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:1];
//
//Fetching data from database and adds them in to arrayResults
//
return arrayResults;
}
Now from some view controller i am calling function of Database manager like this....
[self getProductServiceDidGetDetail:[[SWDatabaseManager retrieveManager] getProductDetail: #"SomeQuery"]
- (void)getProductServiceDidGetDetail:(NSArray *)detailArray
{
[self setDataSource:[NSArray arrayWithArray:detailArray]];
[self.tableView reloadData];
}
Questions are ...
When arrayResult of getRowsForQuery will release?
Do i need to assign nil to detailArray of getProductServiceDidGetDetail?
Is there any memory leaks?
Suggestion will be appreciated.
ARC does automatic memory management. So it releases everything (your array), when you are done using it.
ARC works by adding code at compile time to ensure that objects live
as long as necessary, but no longer. Conceptually, it follows the same
memory management conventions as manual reference counting (described
in Advanced Memory Management Programming Guide) by adding the
appropriate memory management calls for you.
To help you understand better you might want to read apples docs on ARC.
You will not need to assign nil to the array, nor do you have to worry about memory leaks.
You do not have to (indeed cannot) release instance variables, but you
may need to invoke [self setDelegate:nil] on system classes and other
code that isn’t compiled using ARC.
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"]]];
Until yesterday I thought I understood how properties memory management works, but then I ran an "Analize" task with XCode and got plenty of "This object is not own here". Here is a simple example that describes my problem :
MyObservingObject.h:
#interface MyObservingObject : NSObject
#property(nonatomic, retain) NSMutableDictionary *observedDictionary;
-(id)initWithDictCapacity:(int)capacity;
#end
MyObservingObject.m:
#synthesize observedDictionary;
-(id)initWithDictCapacity:(int)capacity {
self = [super init];
if (self) {
self.observedDictionary = [[[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithCapacity:capacity] autorelease];
}
return self;
}
- (void)dealloc {
// The following line makes the Analize action say :
// "Incorrect decrement of the reference count of an object that is not owned at this point by the caller"
[self.observedDictionary release], self.observedDictionary=nil;
[super dealloc];
}
What I don't understand is Why should I leave this property without calling release on it? My #property is set as retain (copy does the same), so when I'm doing self.myRetainProperty = X, then X got its retain count increased (it's owned by self), didn't it ?
You should let the setter do the releasing for you, so remove the call to release in dealloc:
- (void)dealloc {
self.observedDictionary=nil;
[super dealloc];
}
This is because the setter will be synthensized to something like:
- (void)setObject:(id)object
{
[object retain];
[_object release];
_object = object;
}
Which will work as desired when you pass in nil.
It did get increased, but when you set it to nil, the setter method first releases the backing instance variable, and only then does it retain and assign the new value. Thus setting the property to nil is enough, setting the ivar to nil leaks memory, though.
For your better understanding: the typical implementation of an autogenerated retaining setter is equivalent to something like
- (void)setFoo:(id)foo
{
if (_foo != foo) {
[_foo release];
_foo = [foo retain];
}
}
Also note that, as a consequence, you should never release properties like this. If you do so, the backing ivar may be deallocated, and messaging it (release by the accessor when setting the property to nil afterwards) can crash.
You don't need to do
[self.observedDictionary release]
before
self.observedDictionary=nil;
This is enough, because this is a property, and it will automatically send release to previous value
self.observedDictionary=nil;
The reason for the compiler warning is because of the way you are retrieving the object.
By calling
[self.observedDictionary release];
you are in fact going through the accessor method defined as
- (NSDictionary *)observedDictionary;
This returns your object but due to the naming of observedDictionary the compiler assumes that there is no transfer of ownership e.g. the callee will not have to release this object unless they take a further retain. It is because of this that the compiler thinks you are going to do an overrelease by releasing an object that you don't actually own.
More specifically the convention for method names that transfer ownership is for them to start with copy, mutableCopy, alloc or new.
Some examples
Here I have used a name that does not imply transfer for ownership so I get a warning
- (id)object;
{
return [[NSObject alloc] init];
}
//=> Object leaked: allocated object is returned from a method whose name ('object') does not start with 'copy', 'mutableCopy', 'alloc' or 'new'. This violates the naming convention rules given in the Memory Management Guide for Cocoa
Fix 1: (don't transfer ownership)
- (id)object;
{
return [[[NSObject alloc] init] autorelease];
}
Fix 2: (make the name more appropriate)
- (id)newObject;
{
return [[NSObject alloc] init];
}
With this knowledge we can of naming convention we can see that the below is wrong because we do not own the returned object
[self.object release]; //=> Produced warnings
And to show a final example - releasing an object that implies ownership transfer with it's name
[self.newObject release]; //=> No Warning
I ran analyze on my 1st iPhone app, and I see a few potential memory leaks. The app itself works fine on the simulator.
I would like to do the right thing and clear the potential memory leaks, but some are quite puzzling. Maybe someone could help me here?
Thanks in advance.
Pier.
Error 1) The Analyzer says "Potential leak of an object stored in tempDate and tempAns"
#import "Answer.h"
#implementation Answer
#synthesize answerTiming;
#synthesize xPosition;
#synthesize earlyOrLate;
#synthesize hit;
+ (Answer *) createAnswerWithTiming :(NSDate *)paramTiming andXPosition :(float) xPosition
{
NSDate * tempDate = [[NSDate alloc] initWithTimeInterval:0 sinceDate:paramTiming];
Answer * tempAns = [[Answer alloc] init ];
[tempAns setAnswerTiming:tempDate];
[tempDate release];
[tempAns setXPosition:xPosition];
[tempAns setEarlyOrLate:0];
[tempAns setHit:false];
return tempAns;
}
- (void)dealloc {
[answerTiming release];
[self release];
[super dealloc];
}
#end
Error 2) Analyzer says (see below)
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
........
...
UIImage * perfectImage = [UIImage imageNamed: #"perfect.png"];
self.perfectImageView2 = [[UIImageView alloc]initWithImage:perfectImage];
// method returns an objective C content with a +1 retain count
[self.perfectImageView2 setFrame:CGRectMake(145.0f,
150.0f,
self.perfectImageView2.image.size.width,
self.perfectImageView2.image.size.height)];
self.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
UIImage * levelUpImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"levelup.png"];
self.levelUpImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:levelUpImage];
[self.levelUpImageView setFrame:CGRectMake(100.0f,
400.0f,
self.levelUpImageView.image.size.width,
self.levelUpImageView.image.size.height)];
//object leaked, allocated object is not referenced later in this execution path and has a retain count of +1
self.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
}
Error 3)
- (NSMutableArray *) generateQuestionTapAnswers:(NSString *) answersString withFirstBeat: (NSDate *) firstBeatTime
{
NSArray * notesToDraw = [answersString componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet: [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString: #" "]];
float noteValueOffset = 0.0;
NSMutableArray * answerArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init ];
// Method returns an objective C object with a +1 retain count
for (int i=1; i < notesToDraw.count; i++) // i = 0 is the time signature
{
.....
}
return answerArray;
// Object returned to caller as an owning reference (single retain count transferred to caller)
// Object leaked: Object allocated and stored into answerArray is returned from a method whose name generateQuestionTapAnswers does not start with copy, mutableCopy
}
Regarding your first and third warnings, the compiler will assume that you'll be creating an object in "a method whose name begins with alloc, new, copy, or mutableCopy" (see Advanced Memory Management Programming Guide). So, if you're returning a +1 object, make sure your method name begins with one of those four prefixes. If you create a +1 object without one of those prefixes, it won't be happy. So, for error #1, if you rename that method to be something like newAnswerWithTiming, that warning should go away. (If the calling method doesn't clean up after them, though, the warning will just be shifted to that routine, but let's take it one step at a time.)
Likewise for error #3, if you rename that method to be something like newAnswerArrayFromQuestionTapAnswers (or whatever ... I'm not sure if I understand your method name ... just make sure it starts with new), you'll similarly eliminate that warning. In both cases, just make sure to release it at the appropriate point because whomever called these two respective methods now "owns" those objects and is responsible for their cleanup.
As an aside, you don't need to do [self release] in your dealloc in your discussion of error #1. (Frankly, I'm surprised it doesn't generate an error.) You don't need it because if self wasn't already at retainCount of zero, you never would have gotten to dealloc in the first place.
Regarding error #2, how are the properties perfectImageView2 and levelUpImageView defined? If retain or strong, you're creating something with a +2 retainCount, and you probably want to add an autorelease after the alloc/init.