NSMutableDictionary Memory management - objective-c

please go through the following code and please explain why is it crashes in last line?
NSMutableDictionary *dic1 = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithCapacity:10];
NSString *val = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:#"Deepak"];
NSString *key = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:#"First Name"];
int a = [val retainCount];
a = [key retainCount];
[dic1 setObject:val forKey:key];
a = [val retainCount];
a = [key retainCount];
//self.mainDic = [dic1 copy];
self.mainDic = [dic1 mutableCopy];//mainDic is like #property(copy) NSMutableDictionary *
[self.mainDic setObject:#"Hi" forKey:#"Good"];//Problem
Thanks.

copy properties are not suitable for mutable classes as they don't respect mutability and just send the copy message to the instances - what happens in the second last line is basically:
// ... release previous mainDic, if any
mainDic = [[dic1 mutableCopy] copy];
As the copy message results in an immutable version, NSDictionary, you are probably getting exception for an unrecognized selector -setObject:forKey: while debugging.
If you want to use copy properties you should provide your own setter instead and remove that manual mutableCopy - see e.g. Apples docs on the copy semantics.

I've almost never used a property with a modifier other than (nonatomic, retain)
this has saved me of a lot of problems,
that and on the dealloc method set'em to nil
this is the way I'd do it
NSMutableDictionary *dic1 = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithCapacity:10];
NSString *val = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:#"Deepak"];
NSString *key = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:#"First Name"];
[dic1 setObject:val forKey:key];
self.mainDic = dic1; //where mainDic is like #property (nonatomic, retain) NSMutableDictionary *
[self.mainDic setObject:#"Hi" forKey:#"Good"];
//let's clean this mess up
[val release];
[key release];
[dic1 release];

#Deepak ! your code itself works well. And there is no static analysis erro except un-referring a and memory leaking of dic1.
self.mainDic = [dic1 mutableCopy]; works well. Please run your code block again.
I created a new project and put your code and tested it. There was no problem.
#Georg Fritzsche your code is making crash.

Related

Objective C - NSString - Memory basics

I am trying to return an NSString that has been initialized from a plist.
If I comment out my release lines this code works. I would however like to release these objects from memory as I no longer need them.
I thought that 'initWithString' would copy the contents of the target string into my new string meaning I could safely release the NSMutableArray. But it isn't. Why not?
+ (NSString*) genImage {
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:
#"Images" ofType:#"plist"];
NSMutableArray *arrayOfImages = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:path];
NSLog(#"%d", [arrayOfImages count]);
int indexToLoad = 0;
NSString *res = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:[arrayOfImages objectAtIndex:indexToLoad] ];
[arrayOfImages release];
[path release];
return res;
}
You do not retain the return value of -[NSBundle pathForResource:ofType:] (the path variable), so there is no need to release it (and doing so will cause a crash, most likely). However, you should autorelease res, as you do retain that. You can change your last line to
return [res autorelease];

iPad app crashing with no crash log while reading from file

The basic structure of my program has the user select an item from a UITableView, which corresponds to a stored text file. The file is then read into an array and a dictionary, where the array has the keys (I know I can just get the keys from the dictionary itself, this isn't my question).
The view is then changed to a UISplitView where the master view has the keys, and the detail view has the items in the dictionary attributed to that key. In this case, it's a series of "Yes/No" questions that the user selects the answer to.
My problem is this: When I click on a cell in the UITableView (first screen), it works fine, the data is read in perfectly, and so on. When I go back to the UITableView and click on the same cell again, the program crashes. Here is the read-in-from-file method:
-(NSArray *)readFromFile:(NSString *)filePath{
// NSLog(#"Path was: %#", filePath);
NSString *file = [[NSString alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
// NSLog(#"File was: %#", file);
NSScanner *fileScanner = [[NSScanner alloc] initWithString:file];
NSString *held;
NSString *key;
NSMutableArray *detailStrings;
NSMutableArray *keys = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSMutableDictionary *details = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
/**
This is where the fun stuff happens!
**/
while(![fileScanner isAtEnd]){
//Scan the string into held
[fileScanner scanUpToString:#"\r" intoString:&held];
NSLog(#"Inside the while loop");
// If it is a character, it's one of the Key points, so we do the management necessary
if ([[NSCharacterSet lowercaseLetterCharacterSet] characterIsMember:[[held lowercaseString] characterAtIndex: 0]]){
NSArray *checkers = [[NSArray alloc] initWithArray:[held componentsSeparatedByString:#"\t"]];
NSLog(#"Word at index 2: %#", [checkers objectAtIndex:2]);
if(detailStrings != nil){
[details setObject:detailStrings forKey:key];
[detailStrings release];
}
NSLog(#"After if statement");
key = [checkers objectAtIndex:2];
[keys addObject:(NSString *) key];
detailStrings = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
}
else if ([[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] characterIsMember:[[held lowercaseString] characterAtIndex: 0]]){
NSArray *checkers = [[NSArray alloc] initWithArray:[held componentsSeparatedByString:#"\t"]];
NSLog(#"Word at index 1: %#", [checkers objectAtIndex:1]);
[detailStrings addObject:[checkers objectAtIndex:1]];
}
}
NSLog(#"File has been read in");
[details setObject:detailStrings forKey:key];
NSArray *contents = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:(NSMutableArray *) keys, (NSMutableDictionary *) details, nil];
[detailStrings release];
return contents;
}
I've determined that the program crashes inside the
if(detailStrings != nil)
statement. I figure this is because I'm missing some memory management that I am supposed to be doing, but don't have the knowledge of where it's going wrong. Any ideas as to the problem, or why it is crashing without giving me a log?
detailStrings is not initialized when you enter the while loop. When you declare NSMutableArray *detailStrings; inside a method, detailStrings is not automatically set to nil. So when you do
if ( detailStrings != nil ) { .. }
it enters the if statement and since it is not initialized, it will crash when you access detailStrings.
Another thing is that detailStrings won't be initialized if it enters the else part of the loop first. That will cause a crash too. So based on your requirement, either do
NSMutableArray *detailStrings = nil;
or initialize it before you enter the while loop.
Deepak said truth. You should initialize detailStrings with nil first.
But there is second possible issue:
I recommend also to set nil after release, because in the next loop you may test nonexistent part of memory with nil.
if(detailStrings != nil){
[details setObject:detailStrings forKey:key];
[detailStrings release];
detailStrings = nil;
}
And the third possible issue: depending from incoming data you may go to the second part of IF statement first time and try to addObject into non-initialized array.
The fourth (hope last): you have memory leak with "checkers" arrays
Here's what I'm seeing:
//read in the file
NSString *file = [[NSString alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
//create the scanner
NSScanner *fileScanner = [[NSScanner alloc] initWithString:file];
//declare some uninitialized stuff
NSString *held;
NSString *key;
NSMutableArray *detailStrings;
//initialize some stuff
NSMutableArray *keys = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSMutableDictionary *details = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
//begin loop
while(![fileScanner isAtEnd]){
//scan up to a newline
[fileScanner scanUpToString:#"\r" intoString:&held];
//see if you scanned a lowercase string
if ([[NSCharacterSet lowercaseLetterCharacterSet] characterIsMember:[[held lowercaseString] characterAtIndex: 0]]){
//make an array
NSArray *checkers = [[NSArray alloc] initWithArray:[held componentsSeparatedByString:#"\t"]];
//do a check... against an uninitialized value
if(detailStrings != nil){
//set a potentially uninitialized value into an array with an uninitialized key
[details setObject:detailStrings forKey:key];
At this point, you're pretty much hosed.
The fix:
properly initialize your variables
run the static analyzer
read the memory management programming guide

Objective C - UITableView after calling reloadData my object properties are null/nil

I have a ViewController defined as follows:
#interface SectionController : UITableViewController {
NSMutableArray *sections;
}
- (void) LoadSections;
When LoadSection is call it makes a call to NSURLConnection to load a url which in turn calls
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection {
NSString *responseString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:responseData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
[connection release];
[responseData release];
NSDictionary *results = [responseString JSONValue];
NSMutableArray *jSections = [results objectForKey:#"Items"];
sections = [NSMutableArray array];
for (NSArray* jSection in jSections)
{
Section* section = [Section alloc];
section.Id = [jSection objectForKey:#"Id"];
section.Description = [jSection objectForKey:#"Description"];
section.Image = [jSection objectForKey:#"Image"];
section.Parent = [jSection objectForKey:#"Parent"];
section.ProductCount = [jSection objectForKey:#"ProductCount"];
[sections addObject:section];
[section release];
}
[jSections release];
[results release];
[delegate sectionsLoaded];
[self.view reloadData];
}
The data parses correctly and I now have sections filled with many items.
Calling [self.view reloadData] forces a callback to the delegate method cellForRowAtIndexPath which should then present the data into the cell however its at this point that sections is now nil again.
Can someone please point out my mistake? I must admit I am a newbie to objective c and it probably a pointer issue. What is need to do is retain the value of sections after calling reloadData.
Many thanks.
Seeing the new code the problem is obvious:
sections = [NSMutableArray array];
should become
[sections release];
sections = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
note that the array does not become again "nil", is instead deallocated and you get an invalid reference, which might (should) generate a crash on dereferencing.
I suggest you to read some articles on reference counted memory management as it might be not obvious if you are new to Objective-C, and often leads to mistake (i.e: autorelease is not magic at all)
best way to avoid all memory leaks here is just simply use #property (nonatomic, retain) NSMutableArray *sections; by using property you can be sure that all men management works will be correctly managed by system. Just don't forget that property retains value when you doing setSections:, so that you need to pass autoreleased object here.
self.sections = [NSMutableArray array];
...
[self.sections addObject:section];
Also to avoid all problem try to make all objects which should live only in this method autorelease. Like this:
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection {
NSString *responseString = [[[NSString alloc] initWithData:responseData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] autorelease];
NSDictionary *results = [responseString JSONValue];
NSMutableArray *jSections = [results objectForKey:#"Items"];
self.sections = [NSMutableArray array];
for (NSArray* jSection in jSections) {
Section* section = [[[Section alloc] init] autorelease];
section.Id = [jSection objectForKey:#"Id"];
section.Description = [jSection objectForKey:#"Description"];
section.Image = [jSection objectForKey:#"Image"];
section.Parent = [jSection objectForKey:#"Parent"];
section.ProductCount = [jSection objectForKey:#"ProductCount"];
[self.sections addObject:section];
}
[delegate sectionsLoaded];
[self.view reloadData];
}
And also most of object you trying to release already autoreleased:
all params passed into your method shouldn't be released manually, check I think JSONValue also should returns autoreleased object and anything you getting by enumerating or by call objectForKey:

Problem in memory manegment?

I developing an application, in which i working with database manipulation. The method i have written in database class as follows.
-(NSMutableArray *)getData: (NSString *)dbPath{
NSMutableArray *dataArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
if(sqlite3_open([dbPath UTF8String], &database) == SQLITE_OK){
NSString *sqlQuery = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"SELECT empID, addText FROM Employee WHERE nameID = %#", nameID];
sqlite3_stmt *selectstmt;
if(sqlite3_prepare_v2(database, [sqlQuery UTF8String], -1, &selectstmt, NULL) == SQLITE_OK){
while (sqlite3_step(selectstmt) == SQLITE_ROW){
[dataArray addObject:[[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init]];
[[dataArray lastObject] setObject:[NSString
stringWithFormat:#"%d", sqlite3_column_int(selectstmt, 0)] forKey:#"empID"];
[[dataArray lastObject] setObject:[NSString stringWithUTF8String:(char *)sqlite3_column_text(selectstmt,1)] forKey:#"addText"];
}
}
sqlite3_finalize(selectstmt);
}
sqlite3_close(database);
return dataArray;
}
The above code work fine on the simulator but cannot on device.
I also was tracing the memory leaks , in which i founding that memory leak in above method code. But i not able to solve the that memory leak.
Now i also find out memory leak in following method.
(id)initWithString:(NSString *)str attributes:(NSDictionary *)attributes
{
if ((self = [super init]))
{
_buffer = [str mutableCopy];
_attributes = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects:[ZAttributeRun attributeRunWithIndex:0 attributes:attributes], nil];
}
return self;
}
The leak near _buffer = [str mutableCopy];. And leak trace gives me in the output continuous increasing NSCFString string allocation. How i maintain it?
Thanks in advance.
Your leak is that you don't release either the dataArray object, nor the mutable dictionaries you create in the while loop. Consider autoreleasing the mutable array, and manually releasing the dictionaries after you add them to the array.
As for why it "doesn't work" on the device, you need to be more specific about what happens and why that isn't what you expect.
Your inner loop leaks the NSMutableDictionary objects, as you should release them after adding to the array, i.e.
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
[dict setObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", sqlite3_column_int(selectstmt, 0)] forKey:#"empID"];
[dict setObject:[NSString stringWithUTF8String:(char *)sqlite3_column_text(selectstmt,1)] forKey:#"addText"];
[dataArray addObject:dict];
[dict release];
Also, your whole method should most probably return an autoreleased object by naming convention. Not sure if this is a leak - depends on how you call that method and if you release the returned value.
So maybe use
return [dataArray autorelease];
From the first glance you have 2 places where leaks can be:
NSMutableArray *dataArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
...
return dataArray;
Caller method is responsible for releasing array returned from your method - check if it does.
Also your method name is not consistent with obj-c guidelines - they suggest that methods returning non-autoreleased object( so caller is responsible for releasing them) should contain create, alloc, copy in their name. So it could be better to return autoreleased array (return [dataArray autorelease]; from this method and let caller decide whether it needs to retain array or not.
Second place is
[dataArray addObject:[[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init]];
It is leaking dictionary object, you should probably just write
[dataArray addObject:[NSMutableDictionary dictionary]];
Your method contains two call to +alloc that don't have corresponding calls to -release or -autorelease.
NSMutableArray *dataArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
...
[dataArray addObject:[[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init]];
You can rewrite these lines like this to get rid of the leak:
NSMutableArray *dataArray = [NSMutableArray array];
...
[dataArray addObject:[NSMutableDictionary dictionary]];

NSString EXC_BAD_ACCESS

I'm stuck with the following bit of code.
NSString *gridRef = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat: #"%#", [converter LatLongToOSGrid: latLong]];
NSLog(#"Grid Ref: %#", gridRef);
self.answerLabel.text = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat: #"%#", gridRef];
When I log gridRef, it displays the correct result. However, the line setting answerLabel.text causes an EXC_BAD_ACCESS error and the program crashes. IB is connected to the correct label, what is the problem?
Thanks
I've updated the code as follows:
- (IBAction)convertLatLong {
NSArray *latLong = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects: latTextField.text, longTextField.text, nil];
GridRefsConverter *converter = [[GridRefsConverter alloc] init];
NSString *gridRef = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat: #"%#", [converter LatLongToOSGrid: latLong]];
NSLog(#"Grid Ref: %#", gridRef);
NSLog(#"Label: %#", self.answerLabel.text);
answerLabel.text = #"Yippy";
self.answerLabel.text = gridRef;
[gridRef release];
[converter release];
[latLong release];
}
answerLabel is initialised through #property #synthesize when the view controller is pushed onto the stack. (I don't know how it gets init'd apart from it's one of the magical things IB does for you. Or so I assume. I've used exactly the same method in other view controllers and have not had this issue.
I've found the culprits - the question is, how do I go about releasing them?
NSString *eString = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat: #"%f", e];
NSString *nString = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat: #"%f", n];
eString = [eString stringByPaddingToLength: (digits/2) withString: #"0" startingAtIndex: 0];
nString = [nString stringByPaddingToLength: (digits/2) withString: #"0" startingAtIndex: 0];
NSString *theGridRef = [letterPair stringByAppendingString: eString];
theGridRef = [theGridRef stringByAppendingString: nString];
[eString release];
[nString release];
return theGridRef;
and:
NSArray *gridRef = [[NSArray alloc] init];
gridRef = [gridRef arrayByAddingObject: [NSNumber numberWithDouble: E]];
gridRef = [gridRef arrayByAddingObject: [NSNumber numberWithDouble: N]];
gridRef = [gridRef arrayByAddingObject: [NSNumber numberWithInteger: 8]];
NSString *theGridRef = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat: #"%#", [self gridRefNumberToLetter: gridRef]];
[gridRef release];
[theGridRef autorelease];
return theGridRef;
}
You should enable zombie detection by setting the environment variable NSZombieEnabled to YES, so you can see which object causes the bad access (don't forget to remove this again when you found the bug).
Also you can use Instruments to find the location where the object actually gets released. For this start a new Instruments session and use the "Allocations" instrument. In the instrument settings check "Enable NSZombie detection" and "Record reference counts". When running the session you will break where the error occurs and you see a record of all retains/releases.
One place where you can have a quick look if your object is incorrectly freed is in the -viewDidUnload method, where you should release the outlet and set it to nil. If you forget the latter and you access the outlet somehow, it will result in a EXC_BAD_ACCESS.
Edited to match your update:
The problem is that you are assigning eString (and nString) a new string which was alloc/init-ed. Then you override those in the next statements, because -stringByPaddingToLength: (as well as all the other -stringBy... methods) return a new and autoreleased string object. So you lost the reference to the old string which means that there is a memory leak. Additionally at the end you release the already autoreleased objects explicitly which causes your bad access.
Instead you should create autoreleased strings from the beginning ([NSString stringWithFormat:...]) and don't release them at the end.
Check if asnwerLabel is actually non-null. You should also change this line:
self.answerLabel.text = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat: #"%#", gridRef];
To:
self.answerLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#", gridRef];
Otherwise, you will end up with a memory leak in that line.
Maybe the label is not inited at that point in your code, try to check it. Why are you allocating a new NSString?
Just do:
self.label.text = gridRef;
[gridRef release];
how is answerLabel created? You might need to retain that. Or you possibly need to release some things (gridRef)?
I can't see any other issues with your code.
You can (and probably should) set your
answerLabel.text = gridRef;
gridRef is already an NSString, so you don't need to alloc it again.
EXC_BAD_ACCESS is usually a memory thing related to your retain/release count not balancing (or in my extensive experience of it :p).
Okay, the problem was trying to release NSStrings, so I've stopped doing that and the problem has been solved.
Can someone clarify how strings are retained and released. I was of the impression that:
string = #"My String"; is autoreleased.
NSString *string = [[NSString alloc] init...]; is not autoreleased and needs to be done manually.