Question

Ive have used the static analyser to look through my code and have arrived at the following question.

NSString *string = [[NSString alloc] init];
string = [object name];

This give me a memory error saying that the initial value is never read.
I replaced it with the following

NSString *string = [[object name]retain];

Is this better/correct coding?

Cheers

Answer 1

I have seen someone else do this exact thing. NSString *string = [[NSString alloc] init]; creates a new object and assigns it to string. string = [object name]; Assigns the name of object to string. It is similar to saying int a = 0; a = 4, 0 has no effect on the 4. The problem with your code is that [[NSString alloc] init] creates a new object with a retain count of 1, because you do not release it it leaks. [object name] returns an autoreleased object which will disappear at the end of the runloop.

In short, use NSString *string = [[object name] retain];