Though i am using Objective-C syntax, the question language agnostic.
Assuming the following declaration
@synthesize activities = _activities;
self.activities will call the getter and _activities will check for the value which was already assigned. The main benefit of this assignment, as i understand it, is to clearly differentiate when setter is called and when local variables is called instead.
While this is nice, what is the real tangible benefit of using ivar vs using getter methods?
I can think of one, what are others?
- I suppose using ivar is faster then calling the getter, but compared with what goes on with touch events, the difference is negligible.
Accessing the instance variables directly means circumventing any atomicity protection and memory management supplied by the synthesized accessors. If it’s clear when you’re doing that, it’s easier to audit such access to ensure that you’re looking after these aspects of the class’s behaviour yourself.