Question

So I have the following code, and I want to know which is considered better “style” in objective-c.

Option 1:

id temp = [dictionary objectForKey: @"aBooleanValue"];
BOOL var = (temp) ? [ temp intValue ] : NO;

Option 2:

BOOL var = ([dictionary objectForKey: @"aBooleanValue"]) ? [[dictionary objectForKey: @"aBooleanValue"] intValue ] : NO;

I believe the performance is relatively similar since hashmaps have constant lookup times. Is it worthwhile to have the temp variable if it’s never used again?

Answer 1

Both options are valid, and neither is necessarily “better”; it’s simply a matter of preference.

However, from what I can tell, there is a way you can shorten the code to the point where you don’t need the variable or a ternary operator at all.
If the object returned from [dictionary objectForKey:@"aBooleanValue"] is an NSNumber or NSValue (which I’m assuming it is), you can avoid the issue completely by simply calling BOOL var = [[dictionary objectForKey:@"aBooleanValue"] boolValue] and be done with it.