Question

In my past projects I always made a NSObject-HelperClass which interacts with a selfmade-Plist. Now i hear I can use [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] and have also my dictionary.

So why should I use UserDefaults instead of my own NSObject which massages the plist?

cheers endo

Answer 1

NSUserDefaults is a convenient way to store some preferences and the current state of the application (ex: “remember me” checkbox set to yes or no). You should only use it for this kind of data.

You can also use a custom PList to store this kind of information but it can be overkill.

The key question is how large are the data you need to store ?

small dataset => NSUserDefaults

large dataset => PList

You should also consider using CoreData if you have serious storage needs.