Question

i am trying to create a custom setter method for a nsdateformatter. I am not sure whether this is leak free and optimized. is the memory management done properly. I am seeing a leak here. I don’t know why . . .

    @property (nonatomic, retain) NSDateFormatter   *customDateFormatter;
    ...
    @synthesize customDateFormatter; 
    ..
    - (NSDateFormatter *)customDateFormatter
    {
        if (customDateFormatter == nil)
        {
            [self setCustomDateFormatter:[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init]];//it leaks here :(
            [self.customDateFormatter setLocale: self.locale];
            [self.customDateFormatter setDateFormat:@"h:mm:ss"];
        }
        return self.customDateFormatter;
    }
-(void) dealloc
{
     [customerDateFormatter release];    
     self.customDateFormatter = nil;
     [super dealloc];    
}

Answer 1

There is an extra retain. Since your setter retains, and the alloc is a +1. Here’s the remedy:

  NSDateFormatter *df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init]];  // 0+1=1
  [self setCustomDateFormatter:df];                       // 1+1=2
  [df release];                                           // 2-1=1
  // then in your dealloc 1-1=0