Question

I was just wondering while programming. I have got a rootViewController which creates an instance of a childViewController. This childVC is pushed onto my rootViewController through [self.navigationController pushViewController:childVC] from another childViewController (say childVC2). Now I was wondering what happens with my instance of childVC2. Does it get released? Because when returning from childVC to childVC2 I create a new instance of childVC2 and push it into my rootViewController. Obviously I do not have any use for the earlier instance of childVC2 so what happens with it or haw can I manually release it?

Answer 1

Yes if you are alloc the ViewController you have to release it .. the push will increase its reference count by 1 so you have to be sure that you are pop it to decrase the reference count .. and for the creating the instance define it in .h and when create it do it like this

if(yourViewController)
  [yourViewContoller release];

yourViewController = [yourViewControllerClass alloc] init];

another opition is to make it autorelease and in this case you are not responsible to release the ViewController

yourViewController = [yourViewControllerClass alloc] init]autorelease];