Question

I read that non mutable data types can’t be modified once created.(eg NSString or NSArray).

But can they be re-initialized to point to a different set of objects?

If so, do I use release to free any alloc from first time round in between uses? eg:

myArray declared as NSArray *myArray in interface, and as nonatomic/retain property.myArray set in initialization code to a point to an array of strings as follows.

self.myArray = [myString componentsSeparatedByString:@","];

But later I want to re-initialize myArray to point to a different set of strings

self.myArray = [myOtherString componentsSeparatedByString:@","];

Is it possible? Thanks…

Answer 1

Yes you can reinitialized the NSArray. Here is the sample code that i used to re-initialized the NSArray.

NSString *keywords = @"FirstName|LastName|Address|PhoneNumber";
NSArray *arr = [keywords componentsSeparatedByString:@"|"];
NSLog(@"First Init - %@,%@,%@,%@",[arr objectAtIndex:0],[arr objectAtIndex:1],
                                  [arr objectAtIndex:2],[arr objectAtIndex:3]);
arr = nil;

keywords = @"First_Name|Last_Name|_Address|_PhoneNumber";
arr = [keywords componentsSeparatedByString:@"|"];
NSLog(@"Second Init - %@,%@,%@,%@",[arr objectAtIndex:0],[arr objectAtIndex:1],
                                   [arr objectAtIndex:2],[arr objectAtIndex:3]);