Autoreleasing ViewController Memory Management - iphone

Question

Within my mainViewController I'm adding a view from another ViewController. I'm removing it's view when finished. What is the proper way to manage this and where do I release the view controller?
mainVc.m
-(void)showView {
helpPage *elementController = [[helpPage alloc] init];
[self.view addSubview:elementController.view];
}
helpPage.m
-(void)removeView {
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
}

Answer 1

Since you called alloc init on the controller in that instance of mainVc, that instance of mainVc owns releasing the controller.
When it calls addSubView, it will retain the view (and add to view hierarchy) and when it's removed from the superview, it will be released. At that point, when it's release, the controller that created the view is still retaining it as well. When both have released the view, it will go away.
Here's a related SO post:
Does UIView's addSubview really retain the view?

Answer 2

I think you are looking for something like this
mainVc.m
-(void)showView {
helpPage *elementController = [[helpPage alloc] init];
[self.view addSubview:elementController.view];
[elementController release];
}
helpPage.m
-(void)removeView {
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
}
Granted, I haven't seen the rest of your code, so that might not be what you are looking for. However, in terms of memory allocation, any time you alloc something, you must release it later. In the case of views and view controllers, once you add that view or view controller, you can release the copy you "alloc'ed."