Settings-like array of NSString objects - objective-c

Question

I'm only starting with Objective-C and it's still hard for me to do some pretty basic things. Here's what I want to achieve - I need to create a class that would hold all static data of my application which I guess could be represented with a number of NSString ** arrays, such as this one:
NSString *animalNames[NUM_ANIMALS] = {#"fox", #"wolf", #"elephant", #"giraffe"};
I want to be able to access these arrays in a static way from anywhere in my application. Something like this:
StaticData.animalNames[1]
How would I accomplish this in terms of #property, #interface, #synthesize and all this stuff?

Answer 1

I need to create a class that would hold all static data of my application
Here's an example of what you are talking about. It's a basic singleton class with a static array of your animals.
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#interface Foo:NSObject
+ (id)sharedFoo;
- (NSArray *)animals;
#end
#implementation Foo
static NSArray *animals;
+ (void)initialize {
animals = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"fox",#"wolf",#"giraffe",#"liger",nil];
}
+ (id)sharedFoo {
static dispatch_once_t pred;
static Foo *cSharedInstance = nil;
dispatch_once(&pred, ^{ cSharedInstance = [[Foo alloc] init]; });
return cSharedInstance;
}
- (NSArray *)animals {
return animals;
}
#end
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
NSLog(#"Animals = %#",[[Foo sharedFoo] animals]);
}
This application logs the following to the console:
2012-10-08 10:01:46.814 Untitled[77085:707] Animals = (
fox,
wolf,
giraffe,
liger )
EDIT:
If you favor the dot syntax/property notation, you could just implement the following in the class interface:
#property (readonly) NSArray *animals;
which would let you write:
[Foo sharedFoo].animals
etc.