Question

I was just curious, is there any difference between the following two codes?

NSString *aString = [NSString stringWithString:@”a string”];

NSString *aString = @”a string”;

I wonder what exactly is going on when you do the latter way.

Answer 1

Both point to a literal string created at compile time.

Even though stringWithString suggest it’s autoreleased, a literal string will never get released.

See my related post here:

Difference between NSString literals

From the apple docs @ https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Strings/Articles/CreatingStrings.html

Such an object is created at compile time and exists throughout your
program’s execution. The compiler makes such object constants unique
on a per-module basis, and they’re never deallocated, though you can
retain and release them as you do any other object.