Question

Do I have to call release in the dealloc method of a class for non-pointer variables?

e.g.

@interface myClass : NSObject {

    BOOL isDirty; // do i have to release this?
    NSInteger hoursSinceStart; // and this?

    NSDate *myDate; // i will release the pointer in dealloc
}

@property (assign, nonatomic) NSInteger hoursSinceStart; // property to release?

@property (assign, nonatomic) BOOL isDirty; // property to release?
@end

Answer 1

Two things:

1. You only need to retain and release objects. BOOLs and NSIntegers are not objects, they’re primitives.

2. You generally shouldn’t call release for any assign property, because you haven’t retained it — and of course assign is the only type that makes sense for primitives like NSIntegers or BOOLs, since you can’t retain them in the first place.