Thank you all for your clarifications!
On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 6:53 PM, Andy Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Nov 19, 2008, at 5:37 PM, Carmen Cerino Jr. wrote:
>>
>> I am not sure the best way to phrase this question into words, so I
>> will phrase it using example code.
>>
>> - (NSString*)foo
>> {
>>
>> NSString blah = [NSString string];
>>
>> .........
>>
>>
>> //Now do I do:
>> return blah;
>>
>> //Or:
>> return [[blah retain] autorelease]];
>> }
>
> Both return statements are consistent with the memory management rules, but
> in this particular example, the retain and autorelease are superfluous.
>
> I wonder if you're asking because you've seen accessor methods that use the
> second variation? For example, if you have a Person class with a "name"
> ivar:
>
> - (NSString *)name
> {
> return [[name retain] autorelease];
> }
>
> In this case an argument can be made for the retain and autorelease as
> opposed to just "return name;". They protect from something like this:
>
> Person *aPerson = [[Person alloc] init];
> // ... some code which sets the person's name along the way ...
> NSString *aName = [aPerson name];
> [aPerson release];
>
> The [aPerson release] might cause aPerson to be deallocated, which might
> cause its name to be deallocated, which would cause aName to be a bad
> pointer.
>
> When I saw this pitfall, I panicked and thought I'd need to rewrite all my
> getter methods. But it was Jens Ayton, I think, who noted that in practice
> one is very unlikely to run into this pitfall, so really it's a matter of
> personal preference.
>
--
Carmen C. Cerino
University of Akron ACM Chapter President
University of Akron Aux. Services Student Assistant
Cell: 440.263.5057
AIM: UAcodeweaver
[ I <3 MACs ]
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