Why can't I populate my controller with items? - objective-c

Question

I'm using an ItemController to provide a list of items to use in a tableview. I can't seem to populate the controller though, and I'm not sure why.
Here's the code for the controller class:
.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#class Item;
#interface ItemController : NSObject
#property (nonatomic, copy) NSMutableArray *items;
- (NSUInteger)countOfList;
- (Item*)objectInListAtIndex:(NSUInteger)theIndex;
- (void)addItem:(Item *)item;
#end
.m
#import "ItemController.h"
#import "Item.h"
#interface ItemController ()
#end
#implementation ItemController
- (NSUInteger)countOfList {
return [self.items count];
}
- (Item *)objectInListAtIndex:(NSUInteger)theIndex {
return [self.items objectAtIndex:theIndex];
}
- (void)addItem:(Item *)item {
[self.items addObject:item];
}
#end
Item.m
#implementation Item
-(id)initWithName:(NSString *)name{
self = [super init];
if (self) {
_name = name;
return self;
}
return nil;
}
#end
I'm using the following code to populate the list:
ItemController* controller = [[ItemController alloc] init];
for (NSString* key in raw_data) {
NSLog(key); // This outputs the keys fine
[controller addItem:[[Item alloc] initWithName:key]];
}
NSLog([NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",[controller countOfList]]); // Always 0

Answer 1

You need to initialize the array in the init methond.
- (id)init {
self = [super init];
if (self) {
self.items = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
}
return self;
}

Answer 2

You need to initialize your variable items. In your init method, call self.items = [NSMutableArray new]; and also change your array property from copy to retain.
I also believe your class ItemController should be of kind UIViewController and not NSObject.
#interface ItemController : UIViewController

Answer 3

You don't initialise the _items instance variable anywhere, so it's always nil. The result of any integer-returning method called on nil will be 0, so you see that the count is 0.