Question

I have four main methods:

+ (NSArray *)findAll;
+ (NSArray *)findAllWithOrder:(NSArray *)order;
+ (NSArray *)findAllWithConditions:(NSDictionary *)conditions;
+ (NSArray *)findAllWithLimit:(NSRange)limit;

In addition, I want to combine these methods (so I can find all by both order and conditions, for example). Currently I’m doing (all possibilities even with arguments in a different order not shown here):

+ (NSArray *)findAll;
+ (NSArray *)findAllWithOrder:(NSArray *)order;
+ (NSArray *)findAllWithConditions:(NSDictionary *)conditions;
+ (NSArray *)findAllWithLimit:(NSRange)limit;
+ (NSArray *)findAllWithOrder:(NSArray *)order conditions:(NSDictionary *)conditions;
+ (NSArray *)findAllWithOrder:(NSArray *)order limit:(NSRange)limit;
+ (NSArray *)findAllWithConditions:(NSDictionary *)conditions limit:(NSRange)limit;
+ (NSArray *)findAllWithOrder:(NSArray *)order conditions:(NSDictionary *)conditions limit:(NSRange)limit;

But is there a simpler way than creating dozens of methods for this? That would be very nice. Thanks.

Answer 1

Nope, that’s the way you do it. I’m sure someone could find ways to get around creating dozens of similar methods, but they are very rarely used. It’s pretty common for Obj-C (esp. Cocoa) objects to have large numbers of methods that differ from each other only slightly.