Question

I want to have an array that is accessible throughout my Objective-C project whose contents I can change where necessary. My problem is that when I call the array from a different class I always get null, and that’s not what I want.

In my .h file I have

@interface MainScreen2 : UIViewController
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSMutableArray *Judith;

and in the viewDidLoad function on the .m file I have:

@interface MainScreen2 ()

@end

@implementation MainScreen2
@synthesize Judith;


- (void)viewDidLoad
{
   self.Judith = [[NSMutableArray alloc]     initWithObjects:@"1",@"2",@"3",@"4",@"5",@"6",@"7",@"8",@"9", nil];                                                    
    [super viewDidLoad];
}

this is fine.

In a separate class I have:

#import "MainScreen2.h"

@interface NewGame ()
@end

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    MainScreen2 *testJudith;

    NSMutableArray *testJudithArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
    testJudithArray = [testJudith.Judith mutableCopy];
    NSLog(@"Jud test: %@", [testJudith.Judith objectAtIndex:1]);
}

and the NSLog returns null for this point. Is this because when I am calling the Judith array from the MainScreen.h file it is empty at this point because it is not yet loaded?

If so, can anyone help me with where I should be putting the array so when I call it I retain it’s original contents?

---

EDIT: 30 Apr

Using a combination of the suggestions kindly put on this page I have now sorted out the problem and it now works.

I changed the code to the following:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
MainScreen2 *testJudith = [[MainScreen2 alloc]init];
[testJudith viewDidLoad];
NSString *test = [testJudith.Judith objectAtIndex:1];
NSLog(@"Jud test: %@", test);
}

thanks to all that contributed to the forum post!

Answer 1

viewDidLoad is not the same as init…you either move the allocation of the NSArray in init or you call [testJudith viewDidLoad];