Question

I have an object imageView1. I want to create another object to keep the deep copy of imageView1.
Like this,

UIImageView *imageView1 = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"background.png"]];
UIImageView *imageView2 = [imageView1 copy];

I know it does’t work, because UIImageView doesn’t conform to NSCopying. But how should
i do?

Answer 1

To create a deep copy of UIImageView object you need to archive it using NSKeyedArchiver and then unarchive it with NSKeyedUnarchiver, but there is a problem with this approach because UIImage does not conform to the NSCoding protocol. What you need to do first is to extend the UIImage class to support NSCoding.

Add a new category with name NSCoding on UIImage and place the following code:

UIImage+NSCoder.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIImage (NSCoding)
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)decoder;
- (void)encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)encoder;
@end

UIImage+NSCoder.m

#import "UIImage+NSCoder.h"

@implementation UIImage (NSCoding)
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)decoder {
    NSData *pngData = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:@"PNGRepresentation"];
    [self autorelease];
    self = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:pngData];
    return self;
}
- (void)encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)encoder {
    [encoder encodeObject:UIImagePNGRepresentation(self) forKey:@"PNGRepresentation"];
}

@end

Then add a new category with name DeepCopy (for ex.) on UIImageView and the following code:

UIImageView+DeepCopy.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIImageView (DeepCopy)
-(UIImageView *)deepCopy;
@end

UIImageView+DeepCopy.m

#import "UIImageView+DeepCopy.h"
#import "UIImage+NSCoder.h"

@implementation UIImageView (DeepCopy)

-(UIImageView *)deepCopy
{
    NSMutableData *data = [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
    NSKeyedArchiver *archiver = [[NSKeyedArchiver alloc] initForWritingWithMutableData:data];
    [archiver encodeObject:self forKey:@"imageViewDeepCopy"];
    [archiver finishEncoding];
    [archiver release];

    NSKeyedUnarchiver *unarchiver = [[NSKeyedUnarchiver alloc] initForReadingWithData:data];
    UIImageView *imgView = [unarchiver decodeObjectForKey:@"imageViewDeepCopy"];
    [unarchiver release];
    [data release];

    return imgView;
}

@end

Usage:
Import your UIImageView+DeepCopy.h

UIImageView *imgView1 = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"picture.jpg"]];
UIImageView *imageView2 = [imgView1 deepCopy];