Question

If I create a UILabel programmatically, is it necessary to release it afterwards? E.g.,

UILabel *label =  [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:...];
[self.view addSubView:label];
[label release];  // <-- is this needed?

I found this thread that included the release line, but I understand that this works differently in the newer iOS versions.

Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

Yes you need to release it unless you are using ARC.
In this case when you alloc your retain count is 1.
When you do addSubView the view will retain your label : Retain count is 2.
So at that point you are free to make the release to balance out your alloc retain count is now 1.
But that 1 is own by self.view and it will call release when it doesn’t need it anymore.
When that happen the retain count of your label will drop to 0 and it will be deallocated and it’s memory will be free.