Question

I have been programming on iPhone for quite sometime and have had bad experiences with memory management. I was wondering if the following way is a good way to release memory.

int count = [someObject retainCount];

for (int i = 0; i < count; i ++) 
{
[someObject release];
}

This method was an act of desperation in a few situations (particularly UIWebViews) I had faced. The variable’s retainCount is reduced to zero which will release the memory being used by it. The method is a little dirty but are there any bottlenecks associated with it?

Answer 1

You should not rely on the retainCount because there are possibility of retaining the object by iOS frameworks,

Read below what Apple say about retainCount.

Important: This method is typically of
no value in debugging memory
management issues. Because any number
of framework objects may have retained
an object in order to hold references
to it, while at the same time
autorelease pools may be holding any
number of deferred releases on an
object, it is very unlikely that you
can get useful information from this
method.

To understand the fundamental rules of memory management that you must abide by, read “Memory Management Rules”. To diagnose memory management problems, use a suitable tool: