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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-27T11:22:24+00:00

I saw this code snippet on the Internet (http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2008/12/outlets-property-vs-instance-variable.html): #import <UIKit/UIKit.h> @interface MyViewController :

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I saw this code snippet on the Internet (http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2008/12/outlets-property-vs-instance-variable.html):

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface MyViewController : UIViewController {
 UILabel *myLabel;

}
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UILabel *myLabel;
@end

My question is…When @synthesize is called isn’t the UILabel instance variable created automatically? What is the point of creating the instance variable in the header file.. Can you get away with just the @property?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    When @synthesize is called isn’t the UILabel instance variable created automatically?

    Yes.

    What is the point of creating the instance variable in the header file.

    Personal preference. Some developers (like me) prefer to see a complete picture of the state of a class. It helps to see what instance variables are available, as well as check that all instance variables are released correctly.

    It’s also a relatively new feature. Older code wouldn’t expect automatically-generated instance variables.

    Can you get away with just the @property?

    No, you need to @synthesize to get an automatically generated instance variables A property value that’s generated programmatically would not map directly to any instance variable.

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