Question

I’ve many times seen a case where a programmer needs to assign some value (Object or primitive type, does not matter). And let’s say this value is an NSString and can be obtained from the following expression

[myObject description]// returns NSString

But for some reason I’ve seen many people declare another method that itself returns an NSString and executes the above command only. Like:

-(NSString*)getDescription{
   return [myObject description];
}

Is this just a matter of preference, or is is there some benefit from it?

Answer 1

Is this just a matter of preference, or is is there some benefit from it?

Those one line wrappers are often used to:

• introduce behavior of a method that is meant to be overridden
• or (more frequently) to simplify the program. If the method did not exist, you may find the complexity of the program grows. It serves to demonstrate intent, for clarity, documentation, and to minimize redundant implementations (simplifying the program).