Question

I am trying to learn Automatic Reference Counting in iOS 5. Now the first part of this question should be easy:

1. Is it correct that I do NOT need to write explicit
   release-property statements in my dealloc when using ARC? In other
   words, is it true that the following does NOT need a explicit
   dealloc?

   @interface MyClass : NSObject
   @property (strong, nonatomic) NSObject* myProperty;
   @end
   
   @implementation MyClass
   @synthesize myProperty;
   @end
   

2. My next and more important question comes from a line in the Transitioning to ARC Release Notes document:

   You do not have to (indeed cannot) release instance variables, but you may need to invoke [self setDelegate:nil] on system classes and other code that isn’t compiled using ARC.

   This begs the question: how do I know which system classes are not compiled with ARC? When should I be creating my own dealloc and explicitly setting strongly retaining properties to nil? Should I assume all NS and UI framework classes used in properties require explicit deallocs?

There is a wealth of information on SO and elsewhere on the practices of releasing a property’s backing ivar when using manual reference tracking, but relatively little about this when using ARC.

Answer 1

Short answer: no, you do not have to nil out properties in dealloc under ARC.

Long answer: You should never nil out properties in dealloc, even in manual memory management.

In MRR, you should release your ivars. Nilling out properties means calling setters, which may invoke code that it shouldn’t touch in dealloc (e.g. if your class, or a subclass, overrides the setter). Similarly it may trigger KVO notifications. Releasing the ivar instead avoids these undesired behaviors.

In ARC, the system automatically releases any ivars for you, so if that’s all you’re doing you don’t even have to implement dealloc. However, if you have any non-object ivars that need special handling (e.g. allocated buffers that you need to free()) you still have to deal with those in dealloc.

Furthermore, if you’ve set yourself as the delegate of any objects, you should un-set that relationship in dealloc (this is the bit about calling [obj setDelegate:nil]). The note about doing this on classes that aren’t compiled with ARC is a nod towards weak properties. If the class explicitly marks its delegate property as weak then you don’t have to do this, because the nature of weak properties means it’ll get nilled out for you. However if the property is marked assign then you should nil it out in your dealloc, otherwise the class is left with a dangling pointer and will likely crash if it tries to message its delegate. Note that this only applies to non-retained relationships, such as delegates.