How to set expectations on parameters to mocked methods in Kiwi - objective-c

Using OCMockito and OCHamcrest, I can set up expectations on the arguments to mocked methods, thusly:
[verify(aMockObject) doSomething:allOf(is(instanceOf([NSArray class])), hasCountOf(3U), nil)];
There doesn't seem to be an equivalently simple way to do this using Kiwi. It is possible to capture arguments using a spy, something like:
KWCaptureSpy *spy = [aMockObject captureArgument:#selector(doSomething:) atIndex:0];
NSArray *capturedArray = spy.argument;
And then to check expectations on the captured object:
[[capturedArray should] haveCountOf:3U];
Is there a less clumsy way to do this in Kiwi?
(I'm aware I could probably use hamcrest matchers in here, but for the moment I'm exploring what Kiwi is capable of).

One option that I have used is stub:withBlock:
NSArray* capturedArray; // declare this as __block if needed
[aMockObject stub:#selector(doSomething:)
withBlock:^id(NSArray *params) {
capturedArray = params[0];
// this is necessary even if the doSomething method returns void
return nil;
}];
// exercise your object under test, then:
[[capturedArray should] haveCountOf:3U];
This works fine, and I find it easier to implement than the spy pattern. But your question made me wonder about expectations using message patterns. For example:
[[[aMockObject should] receive] doSomething:myArray];
[[[aMockObject should] receive] doSomething:any()];
The first example will verify that aMockObject received the doSomething: message with an argument that isEqual:myArray. The second example will simply verify that doSomething: was sent, with no expectation about the array arugment. It would be great if we can specify some type of Matcher in the message pattern, to express that we don't care what specific array instance is sent in the message, just that it has a count of 3.
I haven't found any examples of being able to do this, but it looks like there are some possibilities. To verify a message-sending expectation, Kiwi uses the KWMessagePattern class, specifically the matchesInvocation: and argumentFiltersMatchInvocationArguments: methods. This checks for three types of "argument filters":
Literal object values (such as myArray in the example above), which are compared to the actual value sent in the message using isEqual:
An object of type KWAny (such as the any() macro in the example above), which will match any argument value
Objects that satisfy [KWGenericMatchEvaluator isGenericMatcher:argumentFilter], which basically means that the object responds to matches:(id)obj
Thus, you should be able to use objects that implement matches: in message-pattern expectations to do things like verify the length of arrays sent to stubbed methods, without resorting to spys or blocks. Here's a very simple implementation: (available as a Gist)
// A reusable class that satisfies isGenericMatcher:
#interface SOHaveCountOfGenericMatcher : NSObject
- (id)initWithCount:(NSUInteger)count;
- (BOOL)matches:(id)item; // this is what KWMessagePattern looks for
#property (readonly, nonatomic) NSUInteger count;
#end
#implementation SOHaveCountOfGenericMatcher
- (id)initWithCount:(NSUInteger)count
{
if (self = [super init]) {
_count = count;
}
return self;
}
- (BOOL)matches:(id)item
{
if (![item respondsToSelector:#selector(count)])
return NO;
return [item count] == self.count;
}
#end
// Your spec:
it(#"should receive an array with count 3", ^{
NSArray* testArray = #[#"a", #"b", #"c"];
id argWithCount3 = [[SOHaveCountOfGenericMatcher alloc] initWithCount:3];
id aMockObject = [SomeObj nullMock];
[[[aMockObject should] receive] doSomething:argWithCount3];
[aMockObject doSomething:testArray];
});
It would be nice to be able to reuse Kiwi's built-in matcher classes here, but I haven't yet found out exactly how to do this.

Related

Objective-C dynamic properties at runtime?

Is it possible to create an Objective-C class that can have an arbitrary number of dynamic properties at runtime?
I want to be able to call mySpecialClass.anyProperty and intercept this inside my class to be able to provide my own custom implementation that can then return an NSString (for instance) at runtime with raising an exception. Obviously this all has to compile.
Ideal would be if I could refer to my properties using something similar to the new literal syntax, e.g. mySpecialClass["anyProperty"].
I guess in a way I want to create something like a dynamic NSDictionary with no CFDictionary backing store, that executes 2 custom methods on property getting and setting respectively, with the property name passed in to these accessor methods so they can decide what to do.
There are at least two ways to do this.
Subscripting
Use objectForKeyedSubscript: and setObject:forKeyedSubscript:
#property (nonatomic,strong) NSMutableDictionary *properties;
- (id)objectForKeyedSubscript:(id)key {
return [[self properties] valueForKey:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#",key]];
}
- (void)setObject:(id)object forKeyedSubscript:(id <NSCopying>)key {
[[self properties] setValue:object forKey:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#",key]];
}
Person *p = [Person new];
p[#"name"] = #"Jon";
NSLog(#"%#",p[#"name"]);
resolveInstanceMethod:
This is the objc_sendMsg executed by the runtime for all methods:
If you look at the bottom, you have the opportunity to resolveInstanceMethod:, which lets you redirect the method call to one of your choosing. To answer your question, you need to write a generic getter and setter that looks-up a value on a dictionary ivar:
// generic getter
static id propertyIMP(id self, SEL _cmd) {
return [[self properties] valueForKey:NSStringFromSelector(_cmd)];
}
// generic setter
static void setPropertyIMP(id self, SEL _cmd, id aValue) {
id value = [aValue copy];
NSMutableString *key = [NSStringFromSelector(_cmd) mutableCopy];
// delete "set" and ":" and lowercase first letter
[key deleteCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0, 3)];
[key deleteCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange([key length] - 1, 1)];
NSString *firstChar = [key substringToIndex:1];
[key replaceCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0, 1) withString:[firstChar lowercaseString]];
[[self properties] setValue:value forKey:key];
}
And then implement resolveInstanceMethod: to add the requested method to the class.
+ (BOOL)resolveInstanceMethod:(SEL)aSEL {
if ([NSStringFromSelector(aSEL) hasPrefix:#"set"]) {
class_addMethod([self class], aSEL, (IMP)setPropertyIMP, "v#:#");
} else {
class_addMethod([self class], aSEL,(IMP)propertyIMP, "##:");
}
return YES;
}
You could also do it returning a NSMethodSignature for the method, which is then wrapped in a NSInvocation and passed to forwardInvocation:, but adding the method is faster.
Here is a gist that runs in CodeRunner. It doesn't handle myClass["anyProperty"] calls.
You're asking different things. If you want to be able to use the bracket syntax mySpecialClass[#"anyProperty"] on instances of your class, it is very easy. Just implement the methods:
- (id)objectForKeyedSubscript:(id)key
{
return ###something based on the key argument###
}
- (void)setObject:(id)object forKeyedSubscript:(id <NSCopying>)key
{
###set something with object based on key####
}
It will be called everytime you use the bracket syntax in your source code.
Otherwise if you want to create properties at runtime, there are different ways to proceed, take a look at NSObject's forwardInvocation: method, or look at the Objective-C Runtime Reference for functions to dynamically alter a class...
Guillaume is right. forwardInvocation: is the way to go. This answer gives some more details: method_missing-like functionality in objective-c (i.e. dynamic delegation at run time)
This has even more details: Equivalent of Ruby method_missing in Objective C / iOS
And these are some other lesser known Obj-C features that might help you: Hidden features of Objective-C
Enjoy!

Objective-C & KeyValueCoding: How to avoid an exception with valueForKeyPath:?

I've got an object of type id and would like to know if it contains a value for a given keyPath:
[myObject valueForKeyPath:myKeyPath];
Now, I wrap it into a #try{ } #catch{} block to avoid exceptions when the given keypath isn't found. Is there a nicer way to do this? Check if the given keypath exists without handling exceptions?
Thanks a lot,
Stefan
You could try this:
if ([myObject respondsToSelector:NSSelectorFromString(myKeyPath)])
{
}
However, that may not correspond to the getter you have, especially if it is a boolean value. If this doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll write you up something using reflection.
For NSManagedObjects, an easy solution is to look at the object's entity description and see if there's an attribute with that key name. If there is, you can also take it to the next step and see what type of an attribute the value is.
Here's a simple method that given any NSManagedObject and any NSString as a key, will always return an NSString:
- (NSString *)valueOfItem:(NSManagedObject *)item asStringForKey:(NSString *)key {
NSEntityDescription *entity = [item entity];
NSDictionary *attributesByName = [entity attributesByName];
NSAttributeDescription *attribute = attributesByName[key];
if (!attribute) {
return #"---No Such Attribute Key---";
}
else if ([attribute attributeType] == NSUndefinedAttributeType) {
return #"---Undefined Attribute Type---";
}
else if ([attribute attributeType] == NSStringAttributeType) {
// return NSStrings as they are
return [item valueForKey:key];
}
else if ([attribute attributeType] < NSDateAttributeType) {
// this will be all of the NSNumber types
// return them as strings
return [[item valueForKey:key] stringValue];
}
// add more "else if" cases as desired for other types
else {
return #"---Unacceptable Attribute Type---";
}
}
If the key is invalid or the value can't be made into a string, the method returns an NSString error message (change those blocks to do whatever you want for those cases).
All of the NSNumber attribute types are returned as their stringValue representations. To handle other attribute types (e.g.: dates), simply add additional "else if" blocks. (see NSAttributeDescription Class Reference for more information).
If the object is a custom class of yours, you could override valueForUndefinedKey: on your object, to define what is returned when a keypath doesn't exist.
It should be possible to graft this behavior onto arbitrary classes reasonably simply. I present with confidence, but without warranty, the following code which you should be able to use to add a non-exception-throwing implementation of valueForUndefinedKey: to any class, with one, centralized line of code per class at app startup time. If you wanted to save even more code, you could make all the classes you wanted to have this behavior inherit from a common subclass of NSManagedObject and then apply this to that common class and all your subclasses would inherit the behavior. More details after, but here's the code:
Header (NSObject+ValueForUndefinedKeyAdding.h):
#interface NSObject (ValueForUndefinedKeyAdding)
+ (void)addCustomValueForUndefinedKeyImplementation: (IMP)handler;
#end
Implementation (NSObject+ValueForUndefinedKeyAdding.m):
#import "NSObject+ValueForUndefinedKeyAdding.h"
#import <objc/runtime.h>
#import <objc/message.h>
#implementation NSObject (ValueForUndefinedKeyAdding)
+ (void)addCustomValueForUndefinedKeyImplementation: (IMP)handler
{
Class clazz = self;
if (clazz == nil)
return;
if (clazz == [NSObject class] || clazz == [NSManagedObject class])
{
NSLog(#"Don't try to do this to %#; Really.", NSStringFromClass(clazz));
return;
}
SEL vfuk = #selector(valueForUndefinedKey:);
#synchronized([NSObject class])
{
Method nsoMethod = class_getInstanceMethod([NSObject class], vfuk);
Method nsmoMethod = class_getInstanceMethod([NSManagedObject class], vfuk);
Method origMethod = class_getInstanceMethod(clazz, vfuk);
if (origMethod != nsoMethod && origMethod != nsmoMethod)
{
NSLog(#"%# already has a custom %# implementation. Replacing that would likely break stuff.",
NSStringFromClass(clazz), NSStringFromSelector(vfuk));
return;
}
if(!class_addMethod(clazz, vfuk, handler, method_getTypeEncoding(nsoMethod)))
{
NSLog(#"Could not add valueForUndefinedKey: method to class: %#", NSStringFromClass(clazz));
}
}
}
#end
Then, in your AppDelegate class (or really anywhere, but it probably makes sense to put it somewhere central, so you know where to find it when you want to add or remove classes from the list) put this code which adds this functionality to classes of your choosing at startup time:
#import "MyAppDelegate.h"
#import "NSObject+ValueForUndefinedKeyAdding.h"
#import "MyOtherClass1.h"
#import "MyOtherClass2.h"
#import "MyOtherClass3.h"
static id ExceptionlessVFUKIMP(id self, SEL cmd, NSString* inKey)
{
NSLog(#"Not throwing an exception for undefined key: %# on instance of %#", inKey, [self class]);
return nil;
}
#implementation MyAppDelegate
+ (void)initialize
{
static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
[MyOtherClass1 addCustomValueForUndefinedKeyImplementation: (IMP)ExceptionlessVFUKIMP];
[MyOtherClass2 addCustomValueForUndefinedKeyImplementation: (IMP)ExceptionlessVFUKIMP];
[MyOtherClass3 addCustomValueForUndefinedKeyImplementation: (IMP)ExceptionlessVFUKIMP];
});
}
// ... rest of app delegate class ...
#end
What I'm doing here is adding a custom implementation for valueForUndefinedKey: to the classes MyOtherClass1, 2 & 3. The example implementation I've provided just NSLogs and returns nil, but you can change the implementation to do whatever you want, by changing the code in ExceptionlessVFUKIMP. If you remove the NSLog, and just return nil, I suspect you'll get what you want, based on your question.
This code NEVER swizzles methods, it only adds one if it's not there. I've put in checks to prevent this from being used on classes that already have their own custom implementations of valueForUndefinedKey: because if someone put that method in their class, there's going to be an expectation that it will continue to get called. Also note that there may be AppKit code that EXPECTS the exceptions from the NSObject/NSManagedObject implementations to be thrown. (I don't know that for sure, but it's a possibility to consider.)
A few notes:
NSManagedObject provides a custom implementation for valueForUndefinedKey: Stepping through its assembly in the debugger, all it appears to do is throw roughly the same exception with a slightly different message. Based on that 5 minute debugger investigation, I feel like it ought to be safe to use this with NSManagedObject subclasses, but I'm not 100% sure -- there could be some behavior in there that I didn't catch. Beware.
Also, as it stands, if you use this approach, you don't have a good way to know if valueForKey: is returning nil because the keyPath is valid and the state happened to be nil, or if it's returning nil because the keyPath is invalid and the grafted-on handler returned nil. To do that, you'd need to do something different, and implementation specific. (Perhaps return [NSNull null] or some other sentinel value, or set some flag in thread-local storage that you could check, but at this point is it really all that much easier than #try/#catch?) Just something to be aware of.
This appears to work pretty well for me; Hope it's useful to you.
There's no easy way to solve this. Key Value Coding (KVC) isn't intended to be used that way.
One thing is for sure: using #try-#catch is really bad since you're very likely to leak memory etc. Exceptions in ObjC / iOS are not intended for normal program flow. They're also very expensive (both throwing and setting up the #try-#catch IIRC).
If you look at the Foundation/NSKeyValueCoding.h header, the comment / documentation for
- (id)valueForKey:(NSString *)key;
clearly states which methods need to be implemented for -valueForKey: to work. This may even use direct ivar access. You would have to check each one in the order described there. You need to take the key path, split it up based on . and check each part on each subsequent object. To access ivars, you need to use the ObjC runtime. Look at objc/runtime.h.
All of this is vary hacky, though. What you probably want is for your objects to implement some formal protocol and then check -conformsToProtocol: before calling.
Are your key paths random strings or are those strings under your control? What are you trying to achieve? Are you solving the wrong problem?
I don't believe this is possible in a safe way (i.e. without mucking with -valueForUndefinedKey: or something similar on other peoples' classes). I say that because on the Mac side of things, Cocoa Bindings—which can be set to substitute a default value for invalid key paths—simply catches the exceptions that result from bad key paths. If even Apple's engineers don't have a way to test if a key path is valid without trying it and catching the exception, I have to assume that such a way doesn't exist.

Dynamic method creation in Objective-C

In the book The Pragmatic Programmer, the authors suggest that all method inputs should be validated. This allows problems with a method to be caught early and their sources traced easily.
In my Mac application, I accomplished this by creating an Assert class. This class has several class methods. These methods determine if some precondition is met, and if it is not, then an exception is thrown. A typical assertion might looks something like this:
-(void) setWidth: (int) theWidth {
[Assert integer: width isGreaterThanInteger: 0];
width = theWidth;
}
This works really well, and significantly reduced the amount of time I've spend bug hunting. However, I've noticed lately some of the assertion methods are very useful as predicates. For example, my integer:isGreaterThanInteger:andLessThanInteger: and my stringIsNotEmpty: methods are equally useful. To this end, I created a second class Predicate, which I filled with several of my more useful predicate methods. So I took the logic from the assert methods, and moved it into Predicate, and then rewrote my Assert methods like the following:
if ![Predicate predicateMethod]
throw exception
This has turned into a maintenance nightmare. If I change the name of a method name in Predicate, I must also change it in Assert to stay consistent. If I update the documentation of an Assert method, then I must do the same to a Predicate method.
Ideally, I would like the reconstruct the Assert class so that when any method is called on it, it intercepts the selector. The Predicate class can then be checked to see if it responds to the selector, and if it does, the method is called on Predicatewith the same arguments that were passed into the Assert method. If the Predicate method returns false, then an exception is thrown.
Is there a way to do this in Objective-C?
Thanks.
You could use -forwardingTargetForSelector: to simply forward the method to another object, but if you want advanced behavior (like checking the return value to see if it's false), you may need to use -forwardInvocation:. (However, note that the documentation says this is "much more expensive" than the former option.)
If you're using pure Objective-C, you should see the "Forwarding" discussion here. It basically describes how to do exactly what you want, including example code.
If you're using Cocoa then you might have to use forwardInvocation: instead.
I ended up overriding resolveClassMethod:. While overriding forwardInvocation might have worked (I would have had to figure out some way to override it for the class object), resolveClassMethod: seems like it's the easier and more efficient method. Here's what my final implementation ended up looking like:
#import "Assert.h"
#import "Predicate.h"
#include <objc/objc-runtime.h>
void handlePredicateSelector(id self, SEL _cmd, ...);
#implementation Assert
+(void) failWithMessage: (NSString *) message
{
NSLog(#"%#", message);
[NSException raise:#"ASSERTION FAILURE" format:message];
}
+(void) fail
{
[Assert failWithMessage:#"An unconditional failure has been detected."];
}
+(BOOL) resolveClassMethod: (SEL) selector
{
if ([(id) [Predicate class] respondsToSelector:selector])
{
/*
The meta class fix was taken from here: http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2008/08/dynamically-adding-class-objects.html
*/
//get the method properties from the Predicate class
Class predicateMetaClass = objc_getMetaClass([[Predicate className] UTF8String]);
Method predicateMethod = class_getClassMethod(predicateMetaClass, selector);
const char *encoding = method_getTypeEncoding(predicateMethod);
Class selfMetaClass = objc_getMetaClass([[self className] UTF8String]);
class_addMethod(selfMetaClass, selector, (IMP) handlePredicateSelector, "B#:?");
return YES;
}
return [super resolveClassMethod:selector];
}
#end
void handlePredicateSelector(id self, SEL _cmd, ...)
{
//get the number of arguments minus the self and _cmd arguments
NSMethodSignature *predicateMethodSignature = [(id) [Predicate class] methodSignatureForSelector:_cmd];
NSUInteger numberOfArguments = [predicateMethodSignature numberOfArguments] - 2;
NSInvocation *predicateInvocation = [NSInvocation invocationWithMethodSignature:predicateMethodSignature];
[predicateInvocation setTarget:[Predicate class]];
[predicateInvocation setSelector:_cmd];
va_list ap;
va_start(ap, _cmd);
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfArguments; i++)
{
void *arg = va_arg(ap, void *);
[predicateInvocation setArgument:&arg atIndex:i+2];
}
va_end(ap);
BOOL returnValue;
[predicateInvocation invoke];
[predicateInvocation getReturnValue:&returnValue];
//determine if the assertion is true
if (!returnValue)
{
[Assert failWithMessage:[NSString stringWithFormat: #"The following assertion failed: %#", NSStringFromSelector(_cmd)]];
}
}
The only thing I couldn't really figure out was how to get the type encoding from the method signature. It didn't seem to affect the output of the methods, but I would like to fix it if I can.

Objective C run-time parameter binding

I'd like (at runtime) to bind a parameter to a function as you can do in boost::bind - a little like the following:
-(void)myFuncWithParameter:(NSString*)param {
NSLog(param);
}
-(void)init {
UIButton *helloButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
[helloButton addTarget:self action:#selector(myFuncWithParameter:#"hello") forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
}
So... I'm dynamically binding (at runtime) the value #"hello" to a parameter.
Obviously the above isn't the correct Syntax. Does anyone know if this is possible and the correct syntax?
Cheers,
Nick.
The short answer is no, or at least not at that level.
The long answer is that it is technically possible to build something akin to using NSInvocations (and/or forwardInvocation:), doing something clever in methodForSelector: and or by dynamically registering method implementations, but it is very tricky, especially if you care at all about speed.
If I had some code where building curried methods like that was really worthwhile, what I would do is something like this (written in this comment, untested);
//FIXME: In a real implementation you would do some mangling, this code will get confused if you have _s in the curried selector, and thus could be exploitable
//This method makes a unique selector by mangling the arguments
- (SEL) selectorForSelector:(SEL)bindSel withString:(NSString *)bindString {
NSString *mangle = [NSString *stringWithFormat:#"LGBind_%#_%#"], NSStringFromSelector(bindSel), bindString];
SEL retval = NSSelectorFromString(mangle);
//Register the imp. You probably want to check if it is already reg
if (![self respondsToSelector:retval]) {
class_addMethod([self class], retval, LGBind_IMP, "v#:")l
}
}
//Generic dispatcher imp
void LGBind_IMP(id self, SEL _cmd) {
NSString *selectorName = NSStringFromSelector(_cmd);
NSArray *array [selectorName componentsSeparatedByString:#"_"];
//Skip index 0; it is #"LGBind"
NSString *originalSelectorString = [array objectAtIndex:1];
NSString *originalArgString = [array objectAtIndex:2];
//Get our the SEL and the IMP
SEL originalSEL = NSSelectorFromString(originalSelectorString);
IMP originalIMP = [self methodForSelector:originalSEL];
//call the original imp
originalIMP([self class], originalSEL, originalArgString);
}
Obviously depending on your exact needs you could do things somewhere differently, for instance you could lazily by the imps in forwardInvocation, or stash data about the managled selector in a dict in the instance instead of just managling it into the selector name.
The general answer is that the target-action mechanism only allows for a target, a sender and a message that takes the sender; therefore, if you need to access data, you must get it from the target or the sender.
One option would be to create a class that represents the binding of a parameter value, a method and an object. This class would have an action that invokes the method on the object, passing the value. Use an instance of this class as the target. Here's a simplistic example:
#interface UnaryBinder : NSObject {
id target;
SEL selector;
id parameter;
}
#property id target;
#property SEL selector;
#property (retain) id parameter;
-(id)initWithTarget:(id)anObject selector:(SEL)aSelector param:(id)aParameter;
-(void)action:(id)sender;
#end
#implementation UnaryBinder
...
-(void)action:(id)sender {
[target performSelector:selector withObject:parameter];
}
#end
If you want to support an arbitrary number of parameters, you'd need to use NSInvocation (as Louis mentions) rather than performSelector:withObject. Of course, controls don't retain their targets, so you need some way of keeping the UnaryBinder around. At that point, you might as well skip the special class and just store the data in the control, as you mention in your comment about using KVP. Alternatively, factor out the action into a controller class and use an instance of that as the target. UnaryBinder and its ilk doesn't really offer any advantages when it comes to target-action. For related topics, google "higher order messaging".

How to build a NSArray (or NSMutableArray) of class methods in Objective-C?

I'm trying to build a NSArray of methods in Objective-C.
(What I'm trying to accomplish here is something like the following in C)
typedef (void)(*handler)(int command);
void handleCommandA(void) { ... }
void handleCommandB(void) { ... }
static const handler handler_table[10] = {
handleCommandA, handleCommandB, handleCommandC
};
I have to port this to Objective-C and I don't know how to
build an array of function pointers (in Objective-c world,
class methods) at compile-time.
In Objective-C I have the following.
- (void)handleCommandA { ... }
- (void)handleCommandB { ... }
/* Now how to add above 2 functions into NSArray? */
NSArray *handler_table = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:... ]; /* This doesn't seem to work. */
The problem here is that to bind those functions you must use the selector keyword which returns a SEL type. This is a pointer type whereas NSArray stores objects.
You thus have three options;
Use a regular C-type array
Fold the functions into an NSObject derived class that will call them.
Use a protocol.
The second is likely the nicer and for this you can use the NSValue class to hold the selector results. E.g;
NSValue* selCommandA = [NSValue valueWithPointer:#selector(handleCommandA:)];
NSValue* selCommandB = [NSValue valueWithPointer:#selector(handleCommandB:)];
NSArray *handler_table = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:selCommandA, selCommandB, nil ];
When you have retrieved the correct entry from the array, to convert back you would do;
SEL mySelector = [selCommand pointerValue];
[someObject performSelector:mySelector];
(Note I'm assuming that from your objective-c syntax that these are intended to be used as methods on an object and not global functions. If you wish to use them globally then you should write them as you would in plain C.)
Another option is to formalize the command methods into a protocol. This allows you to write functionality that will work on any object which implements that protocol and the compiler will provide more checking than if you were just calling selectors.
E.g.
// some header
#protocol CommandHandler
#required
-(void) handleCommandA;
-(void) handleCommandB;
#end
// some other header
#interface someClass : NSObject<CommandHandler>
{
// you will receive compiler warnings if you do not implement the protocol functions
}
Your handling and dispatch code is then written to work with objects of type "CommandHandler". E.g
-(void) registerForCommands:(CommandHandler*)handler
Use NSValue.
For example:
NSArray* handlers = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:[NSValue valueWithPointer:handleA] ... ];
then to access :
handleptr* handle = (handlerptr*)[[handlers objectAtIndex:0] pointerValue];
handle(foo_bar);
In Objective-C, you don't pass around methods; you pass around selectors, which are basically the canonical names of methods. Then, to make an object respond to a selector message, you send it performSelector:. For example:
NSString *exampleString = [NSString stringWithString:#"Hello"];
SEL methodName = #selector(stringByAppendingString:);
// ^This is the selector. Note that it just represents the name of a
// message, and doesn't specify any class or implementation
NSString *combinedString = [exampleString performSelector:methodName withObject:#" world!"];
What you'll want is to make an array of NSStrings containing the names of the selectors you're interested in. You can use the function NSStringFromSelector() to do this. Then, when you want to use them, call NSSelectorFromString() on the strings to get the original selector back and pass it to the appropriate object's performSelector:. (As shown in the example above, the receiver isn't encoded in a selector — just the method name — so you might need to store the receiver as well.)