Question

I’m getting an analyser leak, however this is the same code i’m using elsewhere without a problem. I know I’m using alloc and therefore I have to release, but I am doing this in dealloc.

What am I doing wrong ?

Header file:

@interface myViewController : UIViewController <UITableViewDataSource, 
               UITableViewDelegate> {

    UIBarButtonItem *addButton;
}
@property (nonatomic, retain) UIBarButtonItem *addButton;

Main file:

@synthesize addButton;
- (void)viewDidLoad {

    NSMutableArray* buttons = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:3];


    addButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
                            initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemAdd 
                            target:self action:@selector(btnNavAddPressed:)];
    addButton.style = UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered;
    [buttons addObject:addButton];

    [tools setItems:buttons animated:NO];
    [buttons release];

    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] 
                                initWithCustomView:tools];

    addButton.enabled = FALSE;

- (void)dealloc {
    [addButton release];

Answer 1

Both the above answers are misleading. You don’t need to use a setter, it’s perfectly fine to assign objects directly to iVars. You do need to release anything you alloc or retain however. The problem you have is here:

self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:tools];

This line is alloc’ing a UIBarButtonItem instance and setting it to the rightBarButtonItem property of the navigationItem. That means the navigationItem is retaining the UIBarButtonItem and it is responsible for that retain. You are responsible for releasing it b/c of the alloc and you are not. Change the code to this:

self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:tools] autorelease];

and this leak goes away.