Custom Classes not being retained - iphone

I have a NSXMLParser that parses YT's API. It then turns all the videos into a class I wrote called video. Then the class is put into an array. Then back at my rootviewcontroller I access xmlParser.allVideos (xmlParser is a class I wrote that is the delegate for the xml parser.
Here is what I do with it in the viewDidLoad:
arrayFromXML = xmlParser.allVideos;
Then in the drawing of the tableView I do this:
tempVideo = [arrayFromXML objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
cell.textLabel.text = tempVideo.videoTitle; //crashes here and says NSString has been deallocated.
How can I fix this?

If arrayFromXML is an instance variable you have to retain or copy (to be safe from later manipulation) the array as xmlParser simply might not be alive anymore when other methods are called later:
arrayFromXML = [xmlParser.allVideos copy];
Or better yet using a copy or retain property:
self.arrayFromXML = xmlParser.allVideos;

Related

passing values to another method

I am setting the value for the string in the viewdidload method and getting the string value in the button action method the app gets crashed. can I know the reason for crashing and how to pass the values to the method.
in .h file
NSString *test;
in .m file
-(void)viewDidLoad
{
test = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"sample"];
}
-(IBAction) buttonPressed:(id)sender
{
NSLog(#"%#", test);
}
When I pressed the button the app crashes.
Please try using this solution, I think this will help you,
Create Property of test in .h file like this,,
#property(nonatomic,retain) NSString *test;
and synthesize it in .m file like this,
#synthesize test;
now use test as self.test in .m file like this,
-(void)viewDidLoad
{
self.test = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"sample"];
}
-(IBAction) buttonPressed:(id)sender
{
NSLog(#"%#", self.test);
}
Another solution for this is just retain that test string in ViewDidLoad also, I think this will also help you..
Hope this will help you..
Let me try to explain it in more detail:
You have a string variable in .h file. In view did load you are assigning it as:
test = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"sample"];
What actually happning in this code is your test is a autoreleased object. When you use this and object without alloc and init this is autoreleased object and will release memory after the method you occupied it.
For avoiding this situation you can use #Mehul's solution by creating property. This is against encapsulation concept. Sometimes you have objects you don't want to access outside of the class or don't want to show with objects. Use following in those conditions:
test = [[NSString stringWithFormat:#"sample"] retain]; // or
test = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:#"sample"];
this will keep your string alive till you release it.
There is another way that is not good to use but want to tell you so you can understand it better. Using
test = #"sample";
If you don't want to append string or use it with format you can assign simple string to you NSString object.
using this will have a infinite retainCount of your test variable. You can use this to avoid crash but this is not preferable because as I told this have a infinite retaiCount you can't release it and free your memory after use. So earlier methods are more correct.
This is true with all of your autorelease objects which are created with class methods and not with init.
Hope this will clear you more.
I think simple allocation will solve the problem. Just replace this code in the viewDidLoad method
-(void)viewDidLoad {
test=[[NSString alloc]initWithString:#"Sample"];
}

Accessing NSDictionary problem

I'm only new to iPhone development, so my apologies if this is a silly question. I'm building various apps based on a book I'm reading and one of their suggestion was to build a mini web browser. I thought this would be easy, but while most of it is, I'm seriously struggling with the NSDictionary.
I have a UISegmentedControl used to display various bookmarks. The bookmark name that is displayed on the buttons of the UISegmentedControl is going to be my key and the url is the value associated with it.
I first try to declare an NSDictonary as a private (global variable), but since I could not get it to work, I resorted to declare it in my header file as follows:
#property (nonatomic, retain) NSDictionary *bookmarks;
I synthesize it and I initialized it in the viewDidLoad as follows:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
bookmarks = [NSDictionary
dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:#"http://www.microsoft.com",
#"Microsoft",
#"http://www.google.com",
#"Google",
#"http://www.apple.com",
#"Apple",
#"http://msdn.microsoft.com",
#"MSDN", nil];
[super viewDidLoad];
}
I then associated a control with my segmented control and when the event is triggered and the function is called I've got the following code which is called:
- (IBAction) getShortcut:(id)sender
{
NSString *shortcut;
shortcut = [shortcuts titleForSegmentAtIndex:shortcuts.selectedSegmentIndex];
NSString *url = [bookmarks valueForKey:shortcut];
//[self navigateTo: url];
[url release];
}
When a button from the UISegmentedControl is clicked, I extract the value and stored it into shortcut and then I try to use the shortcut variable as a key to extract the associated value from the NSDictionary "bookmarks" but it keeps crashing on NSString *url = [bookmarks valueForKey:shortcut];
and bombs out of my function and displays the usual error EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
T.
You have two options. one is to deal with the ivar directly as #Matt S. posted. Note that in this case you need to keep you object with enough retain count. You're using and auto released object and causing the error.
The other option is to use the property you already defined:
self.bookmarks = [[NSDictionary ...]];
And the property retains it.
That dictionary is autoreleased.
Try this:
self.bookmarks = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys...]
You didn't retain the NSDictionary.
Do:
bookmarks = [[NSDictionary
dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:#"http://www.microsoft.com",
#"Microsoft", nil] retain];
The problem is, that you do not retain "bookmarks" in the viewDidLoad method. There is an naming convention mentioned somewhere in the Apple docs: If an intialisation method starts with "init..." the returned object is retained, if not you have to do it yourself. The "dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys" returns and object with retain count 0, which means, that after the scope of assignment (your viewDidLoad method) it is immediatly released again.
So just put a
[bookmarks retain];
after your initalisation and you are done. Another solution which does the retaining for you
bookmarks = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys ...];
And you shouldn't release the url in your action. It gets released, once you release the dictionary

creating a Mutable array that can be added to in later clicks of the same button?

General noob questions:
(1) How can I create an NSMutable array in a buttonClicked action that I can add more entries to during subsequent clicks of the same button? I always seem to start over with a new array at every click (the array prints with only 1 entry which is the most recent button's tag in an NSLog statement).
I have about 100 buttons (one for each character in my string called "list") generated by a for-loop earlier in my code, and each has been assigned a tag. They are in a scrollview within the view of my ViewController.
I wish to keep track of how many (and which ones) of the buttons have been clicked with the option of removing those entries if they are clicked a second time.
This is what I have so far:
-(void) buttonClicked:(UIButton *)sender
NSMutableArray * theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity: list.length];
NSNumber *sendNum = [NSNumber numberWithInt:sender.tag];
[theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked addObject:sendNum at index:sender.tag];
NSLog(#"%#",theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked);
}
(2) I have read that I may be able to use a plist dictionary but I don't really understand how I would accomplish that in code since I cant type out the items in the dictionary manually (since I don't know which buttons the user will click). Would this be easier if I somehow loaded and replaced the dictionary in a plist file? And how would I do that?
(3) I also have no idea how I should memory manage this since I need to keep updating the array. autorelease?
Thanks for any help you can provide!
Okay, firstly you are creating a locally scoped array that is being re-initialised on every call to buttonClicked:. The variable should be part of the class init cycle.
You will also be better off with an NSMutableDictionary instead of an NSMutableArray. With a dictionary we don't have to specify capacity and we can use the button's tags as dictionary keys.
Here's what you need to do, these three steps always go together: property/synthesize/release. A good one to remember.
//Add property declaration to .h file
#property (nonatomic, retain) NSMutableDictionary * theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked;
//Add the synthesize directive to the top of .m file
#synthesize theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked;
// Add release call to the dealloc method at the bottom of .m file
- (void) dealloc {
self.theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked = nil; // syntactically equiv to [theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked release] but also nulls the pointer
[super dealloc];
}
Next we create a storage object when the class instance is initialised. Add this to your class's init or viewDidLoad method.
self.theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] dictionary]; // convenience method for creating a dictionary
And your updated buttonClicked: method should look more like this.
-(void) buttonClicked:(UIButton *)sender {
NSNumber *senderTagAsNum = [NSNumber numberWithInt:sender.tag];
NSString *senderTagAsString = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:#"%#",senderTagAsNum];
// this block adds to dict on first click, removes if already in dict
if(![self.theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked objectForKey:senderTagAsString]) {
[self.theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked setValue:senderTagAsNum forKey:senderTagAsString];
} else {
[self.theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked removeObjectForKey:senderTagAsString]; }
[senderTagAsString release];
NSLog(#"%#", self.theseButtonsHaveBeenClicked);
}

How to release an object in a forin loop?

I'm new to cocoa / objective-c and i'm struggeling with the releases of my objects. I have the following code:
gastroCategoryList = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for (NSDictionary *gastrocategory in gastrocategories) {
NSString *oid = [gastrocategory objectForKey:#"id"];
GastroCategory *gc = [[GastroCategory alloc] initWithId:[oid intValue] name:[gastrocategory objectForKey:#"name"]];
[gastroCategoryList addObject:gc];
}
The analyzer shows me that the "gastrocategory" defined in the for is a potential memory leak. But i'm not sure if i can release this at the end of the for loop?
Also at the following code:
- (NSArray *)eventsForStage:(int)stageId {
NSMutableArray *result = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for (Event *e in eventList) {
if ([e stageId] == stageId) {
[result addObject:e];
}
}
return result;
}
The Analyzer tells me that my "result" is a potential leak. But where should I release this?
Is there also a simple rule to memorize when i should use assign, copy, retain etc. at the #property ?
Another problem:
- (IBAction)showHungryView:(id)sender {
GastroCategoriesView *gastroCategoriesView = [[GastroCategoriesView alloc] initWithNibName:#"GastroCategoriesView" bundle:nil];
[gastroCategoriesView setDataManager:dataManager];
UIView *currentView = [self view];
UIView *window = [currentView superview];
UIView *gastroView = [gastroCategoriesView view];
[window addSubview:gastroView];
CGRect pageFrame = currentView.frame;
CGFloat pageWidth = pageFrame.size.width;
gastroView.frame = CGRectOffset(pageFrame,pageWidth,0);
[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
currentView.frame = CGRectOffset(pageFrame,-pageWidth,0);
gastroView.frame = pageFrame;
[UIView commitAnimations];
//[gastroCategoriesView release];
}
I don't get it, the "gastroCategoriesView" is a potential leak. I tried to release it at the end or with autorelease but neither works fine. Everytime I call the method my app is terminating. Thank you very much again!
In your loop, release each gc after adding it to the list since you won't need it in your loop scope anymore:
gastroCategoryList = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for (NSDictionary *gastrocategory in gastrocategories) {
NSString *oid = [gastrocategory objectForKey:#"id"];
GastroCategory *gc = [[GastroCategory alloc] initWithId:[oid intValue] name:[gastrocategory objectForKey:#"name"]];
[gastroCategoryList addObject:gc];
[gc release];
}
In your method, declare result to be autoreleased to absolve ownership of it from your method:
NSMutableArray *result = [[[NSMutableArray alloc] init] autorelease];
// An alternative to the above, produces an empty autoreleased array
NSMutableArray *result = [NSMutableArray array];
EDIT: in your third issue, you can't release your view controller because its view is being used by the window. Setting it to autorelease also causes the same fate, only delayed.
You'll have to retain your GastroCategoriesView controller somewhere, e.g. in an instance variable of your app delegate.
BoltClock's answer is spot-on as to the first part of your question. I'll try to tackle the rest.
Assign is for simple, non-object types such as int, double, or struct. It generates a setter that does a plain old assignment, as in "foo = newFoo". Copy & retain will, as their names imply, either make a copy of the new value ("foo = [newFoo copy]") or retain it ("foo = [newFoo retain]"). In both cases, the setter will release the old value as appropriate.
So the question is, when to copy and when to retain. The answer is... it depends. How does your class use the new value? Will your class break if some other code modifies the incoming object? Say, for example, you have an NSString* property imaginatively named "theString." Other code can assign an NSMutableString instance to theString - that's legal, because it's an NSString subclass. But that other code might also keep its own reference to the mutable string object, and change its value - is your code prepared to deal with that possibility? If not, it should make its own copy, which the other code can't change.
On the other hand, if your own code makes no assumptions about whether theString might have been changed, and works just as well whether or not it was, then you'd save memory by retaining the incoming object instead of unnecessarily making a copy of it.
Basically, the rule, which is unfortunately not so simple sometimes, is to think carefully about whether your own code needs its own private copy, or can correctly deal with a shared object whose value might be changed by other code.
The reason you can release gc after it is added to the gastroCategoryList is that when an object is added to an array, the array retains that object. So, even though you release your gc, it will still be around; retained by the gastroCategoryList.
When you are returning a newly created object from a method, you need to call autorelease. This will cause the object to be released only after the runtime leaves the scope of the calling method, thereby giving the calling method a chance to do something with the returned value.
Note that if your method starts with the word copy or new, then you should not autorelease your object; you should leave it for the calling method to release.
As for copy vs retain vs assign... as a general rule, copy objects that have a mutable version, such as NSArray, NSSet, NSDictionary, and NSString. This will ensure that the object you have a pointer to is not mutable when you don't want it to be.
Otherwise, use retain whenever you want your class to be ensured that an object is still in memory. This will apply to almost every object except for objects that are considered parents of your object, in which case you would use assign. (See the section on retain cycles here).
Also note that you have to use assign for non-object types such as int.
Read through the Memory Management Programming Guide a bit; it's quite helpful.

iphone NSString Array

I declared
NSString *dayinfield[43];
and fill it in
-(void)DrawDemo {
dayinfield[2] = #"hallo";
dayinfield[3] = #"test";
// also i can read it
NSLog (#"show: %#",dayinfield[2]);
//works fine
}
but when i like to read its content in another function (same class)
-(void)ReadData
{
NSLog (#"show: %#",dayinfield[2]);
// I get random infos or “EXC_BAD_ACCESS
}
How do I initialize the NSString Array correct so I can reach its content in each of my functions??
Thanks
chris
If you only assign literals to the array elements, this should not be a problem. But if you use other strings, you have to retain the instances manually when using a C array.
By the way: Objective-C methods start with a lowercase letter.
This would happen if you never initialized the array (or the parts of it you are accessing) - if you haven't called -DrawDemo before -ReadData or used different indices than the ones posted here, the array would simply contain garbage values.
Try to initialize the array contents to nil or #"" in your initializer method and see if the problem persists.
Alternatively consider using a suitable Cocoa container.
It's memory is probably being released before your second call. Assuming you have declared dayinfield as an ivar (and the fact that you don't get bad access all the time) your string aren't properly retained.
Initialise the strings like this:
dayinfield[2] = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:#"hallo"];
dayinfield[3] = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:#"test"];
and you should release them after you're class is being deallocated (See Memory Management Guide).
Also, obviously it depends on what you want to do, but it might be easier if you use NSArray instead of C arrays.
What you have in the OP should work although it is an exercise in sheer masochism to use old school C arrays with objects.
I ran this code:
#interface TestClass : NSObject {
NSString *a[1];
}
- (void) drawDemo;
- (void) readData;
#end
#implementation TestClass
- (void) drawDemo{
a[0]=#"A Zero";
a[1]=#"A One";
}//------------------------------------- (void) drawDemo------------------------------------
- (void) readData{
NSLog(#"a[0]=%#,a[1]=%#",a[0],a[1]);
}//------------------------------------- (void) readData------------------------------------
#end
TestClass *tc=[[TestClass alloc] init];
[tc drawDemo];
[tc readData];
... and got this output:
a[0]=A Zero,a[1]=A One
Your problem is elsewhere in your code. There is no compelling reason to use C arrays with objects. You gain nothing and you have to watch them like a hawk to prevent errors.