Suppose (for the sake of argument) that I have a view class which contains an NSDictionary. I want a whole bunch of properties, all of which access the members of that dictionary.
For example, I want #property NSString* title and #property NSString* author.
For each one of these properties, the implementation is the same: for the getter, call [dictionary objectForKey:propertyName];, and for the setter do the same with setObject:forKey:.
It would take loads of time and use loads of copy-and-paste code to write all those methods. Is there a way to generate them all automatically, like Core Data does with #dynamic properties for NSManagedObject subclasses? To be clear, I only want this means of access for properties I define in the header, not just any arbitrary key.
I've come across valueForUndefinedKey: as part of key value coding, which could handle the getters, but I'm not entirely sure whether this is the best way to go.
I need these to be explicit properties so I can bind to them in Interface Builder: I eventually plan to write an IB palette for this view.
(BTW, I know my example of using an NSDictionary to store these is a bit contrived. I'm actually writing a subclass of WebView and the properties will refer to the IDs of HTML elements, but that's not important for the logic of my question!)
I managed to solve this myself after pouring over the objective-c runtime documentation.
I implemented this class method:
+ (BOOL) resolveInstanceMethod:(SEL)aSEL
{
NSString *method = NSStringFromSelector(aSEL);
if ([method hasPrefix:#"set"])
{
class_addMethod([self class], aSEL, (IMP) accessorSetter, "v#:#");
return YES;
}
else
{
class_addMethod([self class], aSEL, (IMP) accessorGetter, "##:");
return YES;
}
return [super resolveInstanceMethod:aSEL];
}
Followed by a pair of C functions:
NSString* accessorGetter(id self, SEL _cmd)
{
NSString *method = NSStringFromSelector(_cmd);
// Return the value of whatever key based on the method name
}
void accessorSetter(id self, SEL _cmd, NSString* newValue)
{
NSString *method = NSStringFromSelector(_cmd);
// remove set
NSString *anID = [[[method stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(0, 3) withString:#""] lowercaseString] stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:#":" withString:#""];
// Set value of the key anID to newValue
}
Since this code tries to implement any method that is called on the class and not already implemented, it'll cause problems if someone tries calling something you're note expecting. I plan to add some sanity checking, to make sure the names match up with what I'm expecting.
You can use a mix of your suggested options:
use the #dynamic keyword
overwrite valueForKey: and setValue:forKey: to access the dictionary
use the objective-c reflection API's method class_getProperty and check it for nil. If it's not nil your class has such a property. It doesn't if it is.
then call the super method in the cases where no such property exists.
I hope this helps. Might seem a bit hacky (using reflection) but actually this is a very flexible and also absolutely "legal" solution to the problem...
PS: the coredata way is possible but would be total overkill in your case...
Befriend a Macro? This may not be 100% correct.
#define propertyForKey(key, type) \
- (void) set##key: (type) key; \
- (type) key;
#define synthesizeForKey(key, type) \
- (void) set##key: (type) key \
{ \
[dictionary setObject];// or whatever \
} \
- (type) key { return [dictionary objectForKey: key]; }
sounds like you should should be using a class instead of a dictionary. you're getting close to implementing by hand what the language is trying to give you.
There is a nice blog with example code with more robust checks on dynamic properties at https://tobias-kraentzer.de/2013/05/15/dynamic-properties-in-objective-c/ also a very nice SO answer at Objective-C dynamic properties at runtime?.
Couple of points on the answer. Probably want to declare an #property in the interface to allow typeahead also to declare the properties as dynamic in the implementation.
Related
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!
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.
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".
I have an object in objective-c at runtime, from which I only know the KVC key and I need to detect the return value type (e.g. I need to know if its an NSArray or NSMutableArray) of this property, how can I do that?
You're talking about runtime property introspection, which happens to be something that Objective-C is very good at.
In the case you describe, I'm assuming you have a class like this:
#interface MyClass
{
NSArray * stuff;
}
#property (retain) NSArray * stuff;
#end
Which gets encoded in XML something like this:
<class>
<name>MyClass</name>
<key>stuff</key>
</class>
From this information, you want to recreate the class and also give it an appropriate value for stuff.
Here's how it might look:
#import <objc/runtime.h>
// ...
Class objectClass; // read from XML (equal to MyClass)
NSString * accessorKey; // read from XML (equals #"stuff")
objc_property_t theProperty =
class_getProperty(objectClass, accessorKey.UTF8String);
const char * propertyAttrs = property_getAttributes(theProperty);
// at this point, propertyAttrs is equal to: T#"NSArray",&,Vstuff
// thanks to Jason Coco for providing the correct string
// ... code to assign the property based on this information
Apple's documentation (linked above) has all of the dirty details about what you can expect to see in propertyAttrs.
Cheap answer: use the NSObject+Properties source here.
It implements the same methodology described above.
The preferred way is to use the methods defined in the NSObject Protocol.
Specifically, to determine if something is either an instance of a class or of a subclass of that class, you use -isKindOfClass:. To determine if something is an instance of a particular class, and only that class (ie: not a subclass), use -isMemberOfClass:
So, for your case, you'd want to do something like this:
// Using -isKindOfClass since NSMutableArray subclasses should probably
// be handled by the NSMutableArray code, not the NSArray code
if ([anObject isKindOfClass:NSMutableArray.class]) {
// Stuff for NSMutableArray here
} else if ([anObject isKindOfClass:NSArray.class]) {
// Stuff for NSArray here
// If you know for certain that anObject can only be
// an NSArray or NSMutableArray, you could of course
// just make this an else statement.
}
This is really a comment addressing an issue raised by Greg Maletic in response to answer provided by e.James 21APR09.
Agreed that Objective-C could use a better implementation for getting these attributes.
Below is a method I quickly threw together to retrieve attributes of a single object property:
- (NSArray*) attributesOfProp:(NSString*)propName ofObj:(id)obj{
objc_property_t prop = class_getProperty(obj.class, propName.UTF8String);
if (!prop) {
// doesn't exist for object
return nil;
}
const char * propAttr = property_getAttributes(prop);
NSString *propString = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:propAttr];
NSArray *attrArray = [propString componentsSeparatedByString:#","];
return attrArray;
}
Partial list of attribute keys:
R Read-only
C Copy of last value assigned
& Reference to last value assigned
N Nonatomic property
W Weak reference
Full list at Apple
You can use isKindOfClass message
if([something isKindOfClass:NSArray.class])
[somethingElse action];
If you know that the property is defined :
id vfk = [object valueForKey:propertyName];
Class vfkClass = vfk.class;
And compare with isKindOfClass, isSubClass, etc.
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.)