Question

I recently started learning Objective-C. I decided to make a class called “Student” with the properties age, name, and importantly, classes. I have put the classes in an NSArray full of NSStrings. My issue is, if I define it as an @property, it automatically creates a setter and getter method for it. I dont want that in my class. How do I define an NSArray as private data in the class, without allowing for the setter and getter?

Here’s the header code:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>


@interface Student : NSObject

@property NSString * Name;
@property unsigned short age;
@property BOOL isFullTime;
@property NSMutableArray * Classes;

@end

[NSGreeter ThanksGuys];

Answer 1

You have a few popular options. Of course, you can substitute types as you wish:

A:

Place it in the header, and specify @private access.

// Student.h
@interface Student : NSObject
{
@private // << note: protected is the default when declared in this scope.
   NSArray * ivar;
}
@end

B:

Place it in the @implementation block. you could specify access, but that is not usually an issue because it is not visible to any other translation.

// Student.m
@implementation Student
{
@private // << note: private is the default when declared in this scope.
   NSArray * ivar;
}
@end

C:

Declare it in the class continuation:

// Student.m
@interface Student ()
{
  NSArray * ivar;
}

@end

D:

Declare as a property in the class continuation:

// Student.m
@interface Student ()

@property (nonatomic, copy) NSArray * ivar;

@end