Question

There is some code that I am using written by someone else that I have a question….

NSString *c = @"test";  // "Local" string
NSString *d = [NSString alloc]initWithString:@"test"]; // "Heap" string

const char *c = "test";
return [NSString stringWithUTF8String:c]; // ??

I am not sure what the return statement in this case is returning. I would have written it something like…

return [NSString alloc]initWithUTF8String:c];

or

return [NSString alloc]initWithUTF8String:c]autorelease];

Why would the return statement be written like above?

Answer 1

[NSString stringWithUTF8String:c] returns an autoreleased object ..so its the same thing as [NSString alloc]initWithUTF8String:c]autorelease] but from what i understand from documentation [NSString stringWithUTF8String:c] doesn’t make a copy of the string..so its faster