Question

I have two properties NSString, both of which I have synthesized and are readonly and so I cannot use the property method self. but I though both the passed string most be retained. So, I added retain to retain the properties. But I feel, I will have leaks here since the passed objects are have increased their retain count. But will my properties retain these string without sending message retain.

-(void)setValue:(NSString *)passedString1 second:(NSString *)passedString2{
     myString = [passedString1 retain];
     hisString = [passedString2 retain];
}

Lets say I have property for array(variable) declared as NSArray and I pass NSDictionary as argument this way;

NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:@"text", @"This is some text", nil];
[self setValueForArray:dict];

-(void)setValueForArray:(NSDictionary*)passedDict{
 NSArray *someArray = [NSArray arrayWithObject:passedDict];
 if(array!=someArray){
 [array release];
 array = someArray; //I dont think I should retain this property here since it is retained by someArray
 }
}

Is this approach correct for NSDictionary and NSArray types.

Answer 1

Use copy for Strings and release the previous object:

-(void)setValue:(NSString *)passedString1 second:(NSString *)passedString2
{
     if (myString != passedString1)
     {
         [myString release]; 
         myString = [passedString1 copy];
     }

     if (hisString != passedString2)
     {
         [hisString release];
         hisString = [passedString2 copy];
     }
}

If you need to release the Strings that were passed in as parameters, do it in the calling method after calling setValue: