Question

In C++ an object can delete itself, in Objective-C calling Dealloc is not something permitted, also with ARC the class may not even have a dealloc.

In Objective-C would be an equivalent way of an object deleting itself as is sometimes done in C++?

Answer 1

There is no direct equivalent for “delete this” as Objective-C uses reference counting and the system will delete your object when the number of its references reaches zero. If you want to implement some kind of “one-shot” objects i.e. that do something then delete themselves, then your best bet will be to increment the reference count to self when starting the operation with [self retain] and decrement it when you end with [self release]. If nobody else holds reference to your object, this later will cause the object to delete itself.