Question

I’m pretty sure this is causing a leak and I would like some advice. Here’s code based on what I’m doing:

NSMutableArray* straVideoTitles;

- (void) parseData{
  //stuff
  straVideoTitles = [self getVideoTitle:strData]; //strData contains unparsed data
  //more stuff
}

- (NSMutableArray*) getVideoTitles:(NSString*)strData{
    NSMutableArray *array;
    array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    //Parse data and populate array
    return array;
}

Based on the fact that I’m allocating space for NSMutableArray and not releasing it, thats a leak right? How do I tackle this? Should I forgo returning a value and assign straVideoTitles inside getVideoTitles then release like:

- (void) getVideoTitles:(NSString*)strData{
    NSMutableArray *array;
    array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    //Parse data and populate array
    straVideoTitles = array;
    [array release];
}

or am i going about this all wrong? Or is everything fine because I’m releasing straVideoTitles in dalloc?

Answer 1

You could change the

return array;

into

return [array autorelease];

Or you could use ARC and just don’t care about it anymore.

Edit: The second approach is possible and does not include a memory leak but the code is less capsulated and therefore less reusable and future prove.