NSNumbers in archived array dissappear - objective-c

Okay I've made an array of NSNumber objects that I've stored into an NSMutableArray. When the game loads it's unarchived and retained but all the NSNumber objects are gone. Here's my code:
times = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:[[NSNumber alloc] initWithFloat:time],nil];
[NSKeyedArchiver archiveRootObject:times toFile:#"times"];
...
NSMutableArray *newTimes = [[NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithFile:#"times"] retain];
times = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:newTimes];
[newTimes release];
Please help.

Related

I have a memory leak in this objective-c method, can anyone tell me where?

I'm receiving an exc_bad_access somewhere in the code below. I don't understand where it is if anyone could shine any light on it? It's a method that takes in an NSMutableArray of dictionaries and sorts them by one of the elements in the dictionary. The memory leak is almost certainly in the bit with the block but I think i'm missing something fundamental in finding it...
-(NSMutableArray*)sortBicyclesByDistanceToDevice:(NSMutableArray*)inputArray{
NSArray *arrayToHoldSorted = [[[NSArray alloc] init];
arrayToHoldSorted = [inputArray sortedArrayUsingComparator:^(id a, id b){
NSNumber *first = [[a objectForKey:kDistanceFromDevice] objectForKey:kValue];
NSNumber *second = [[b objectForKey:kDistanceFromDevice] objectForKey:kValue];
return [first compare:second];}];
NSMutableArray *retVal = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
retVal = [arrayToHoldSorted mutableCopy];
[arrayToHoldSorted release];
return [retVal autorelease];
}
Thanks
It looks like you assign retVal to an NSMutableArray through then reassign immediately after. The original alloced NSMutableArray will leak. That is:
NSMutableArray *retVal = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
retVal = [arrayToHoldSorted mutableCopy];
Should be:
NSMutableArray *retVal = [arrayToHoldSorted mutableCopy];
Replace:
NSMutableArray *retVal = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
retVal = [arrayToHoldSorted mutableCopy];
With:
NSMutableArray *retVal = [arrayToHoldSorted mutableCopy];
You are leaking the first value of retVal.
There's more than one in there!
This line:
NSArray *arrayToHoldSorted = [[[NSArray alloc] init];
Is a memory leak since you immediately reassign the pointer. It should be removed. Just declare your array on the next line:
NSArray* arrayToHoldSorted = [inputArray sortedArrayUsingComparator...
This method returns an autoreleased object, so you don't need to release it later on.
A similar pattern with the mutable array. You alloc/init, then overwrite with a new object, giving another leak. Again, remove the alloc/init line and just declare in the next line. mutableCopy gives you an implicitly retained object, so you do need to autorelease it.
You seem to be under the impression that alloc/init is needed every time you declare an object variable. This is not the case.
You allocate arrayToHoldSorted (1) - which you never use as you then get an NSArray back from sortedArrayUsingComparator(2). And then you release it afterwards(3) when you don't own it. You do the same trick for retVal, allocating a NSMutableArray - then overwriting your reference to it by getting a new NSMutableArray from [arrayToHoldSorted mutableCopy];
NSArray *arrayToHoldSorted = [[NSArray alloc] init]; .. // 1
arrayToHoldSorted = [inputArray sortedArrayUsingComparator:^(id a, id b) ..... // 2
[arrayToHoldSorted release]; // 3
Just assign the return NSArray from sortedArrayUsingComparator to a reference...
NSArray* arrayToHoldSorted = [inputArray sortedArrayUsingComparator:^(id a, id b) .....
I think the problem is that in this line:
return [retVal autorelease];
you release something that you have not retained. Also in this line:
NSArray *arrayToHoldSorted = [[[NSArray alloc] init];
you have an extra [, which does not help. But most importantly, you can use the static analyzer in XCode to diagnose this sort of bug, rather than pestering the good folk on StackOverflow.

Memory management while copying objects

I know that my question has already been discussed on StackOverflow but i found the answer not complete for my needs. So the question is:
NSMutableArray *firstArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects: obj1,obj2,nil];
NSMutableArray *secondArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
secondArray = [firstArray mutableCopy];
what is retain count for the secondArray now? 2 or 1? Should i release it twice or just once?
Does copy or mutableCopy increases retain count of the COPYING (secondArray in this event) object?
You should never care about the absolute retain count. Only that you're "balanced", that means for every alloc, new*, copy, mutableCopy and retain you need a corresponding release or autorelease (when not using ARC, that is).
If you apply this rule to each line you can see that your second line has an alloc, but there's no release. In fact, it's absolutely useless to allocate an instance here since you're not interested in it anyway. So it should simply read:
NSMutableArray *firstArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects: obj1,obj2,nil];
NSMutableArray *secondArray = [firstArray mutableCopy];
// There is no third line.
But let's discuss your original code and see what happened:
NSMutableArray *firstArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects: obj1,obj2,nil];
NSMutableArray *secondArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
// secondArray points to a new instance of type NSMutableArray
secondArray = [firstArray mutableCopy];
// You have copied another array (created a new NSMutableArray
// instance) and have overwritten the pointer to the old array.
// This means that the instance allocated in line 2 is still there
// (was not released) but you don't have a pointer to it any more.
// The array from line 2 has been leaked.
In Objective-C, we often speak of ownership: there are very few methods that make you the "owner" of an object. These are:
alloc
new*, as in newFoo
copy and mutableCopy
retain
If you call these, you get an object for which you are responsible. And that means you need to call a corresponding number of release and/or autorelease on these objects. For example, you're fine if you do [[obj retain] retain]; and then [[obj autorelease] release];
NSMutableArray *firstArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects: obj1,obj2,nil];
NSMutableArray *secondArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
secondArray = [firstArray mutableCopy];
What is happening is that you've created a memory leak. You just lost the reference assigned to secondArray when you overwrote it with the mutableCopy of firstArray with this line.
secondArray = [firstArray mutableCopy];
If you then release secondArray twice, the program will crash because you're then overreleasing the mutable array assigned by
secondArray = [firstArray mutableCopy];
What you need to do is to make sure you're not overwriting retained references by mistake, and balance retains with releases.

Can I update an object stored in two collections by changing it in just one?

If I have something like this:
SomeObject *obj = [[SomeObject alloc] init];
obj.someIvar = 100;
NSMuteableArray *arr = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:10];
[arr addObject:obj];
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithCapacity:50];
[dict setValue:obj forKey:#"key"];
[obj release];
Can I update obj like so:
SomeObject *objFromDict = [dict objectForKey:#"key"];
objFromDict.someIvar = 5200;
...and expect the object in arr to be updated as well? I'm assuming collections are storing and giving out pointers.
Yes, you are right.
In NSMuteableArray *arr and NSMutableDictionary *dict will be stored reference to object SomeObject *obj. When you are calling [dict objectForKey:#"key"]; you get this reference and in expression objFromDict.someIvar = 5200; you are modifying property someIvar.
When you will try to get the same object from arr the value of someIvar will be also changed because of arrays and dictionaries just store references to instances.

Getting an NSString out of an NSArray

I am trying to save and read back some application settings stored as NSStrings in an iPhone app and have been having some trouble.
The code to save looks like:
NSMutableArray *array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
[array addObject:accountID];
...
[array writeToFile:[self dataFilePath] atomically:YES];
[array release];
And the code to read looks like (accountID is an NSString*):
NSArray *array = [[NSArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
accountID = [array objectAtIndex:0];
...
[array release];
NSLog(#"Loading settings for: %#", accountID);
The read code throws an exception because after the array is released the accountID variable also appears to have been released (moving the NSLog call before releasing the array works fine). So I'm guessing that I'm creating a reference to the array instead of pulling out the actual string contained in the array. I tried several things to create new strings using the array contents but haven't had any luck.
You guess is on the right lines although you have a reference to the 0th element of the array not the array. The array consists of pointers to NSString objects. The Strings will get get released when yhe array is released.
You need to retain the element you are using e/g/
NSArray *array = [[NSArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
NSString* accountID = [[array objectAtIndex:0]retain];
...
[array release];
NSLog(#"Loading settings for: %#", accountID);
When you release the array the reference to the accountID will also be released. You need to retain it.
accountID = [[array objectAtIndex:0] retain];
Then obviously at some point you need to release it.
try [accountID retain] before you release the array

Fill NSMutableArray from another NsMutableArray

I have two classes indexViewController and flashCardQuestionViewController.
In the indexViewController i have table filled with an array.
Now i am getting some data from the database:
-(void)getMultipleChoiceAnswer
{
if(optionid!=nil)
[optionid removeAllObjects];
else
optionid = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
if(optionText!=nil)
[optionText removeAllObjects];
else
optionText = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
clsDatabase *clsDatabaseObject = [[clsDatabase alloc] init];
sqlite3_stmt *dataRows = [clsDatabaseObject getDataset:"select optionID,OptionText from flashCardMultipleAnswer where questionId=1"];
while(sqlite3_step(dataRows) == SQLITE_ROW)
{
[optionid addObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:sqlite3_column_int(dataRows,0)]];
[optionText addObject:[NSString stringWithUTF8String:(char *)sqlite3_column_text(dataRows,1)]];
}
sqlite3_finalize(dataRows);
[clsDatabaseObject release];
}
and I am calling this method in the viewDidLoad method of the indexViewController.
Now I have another NSMutableArray in the flashCardQuestionViewController named listNoOfOptionsInQuestion.
I want to fill listNoOfOptionsInQuestion with objects from optionText array in indexViewController.
How can I do this?
There are a number of ways to copy arrays: you can either use -[NSArray copy] to get an immutable copy, or -[NSArray mutableCopy] for a mutable copy. Don't forget that copy adds a reference so you'll need a release or autorelease somewhere (if you're not using GC that is).
Alternatively, you can use -[NSMutableArray addObjectsFromArray:].
Given your example, it looks like you want to do something like this at the end:
[flashCardQuestionViewController setListNoOfOptionsInQuestion:optionText];
And then in FlashCardQuestionViewController, you want something like:
- (void)setListNoOfOptionsInQuestion:(NSArray *)options
{
if (options != listNoOfOptionsInQuestion) {
[listNoOfOptionsInQuestion release];
listNoOfOptionsInQuestion = [options mutableCopy];
}
}
Rahul,
Do you really need to have a completely different copy of the MutableArray in each object. Would it be possible to have both objects point to the same array? For instance:
ClassOne *one = [[ClassOne alloc] init];
ClassTwo *two = [[ClassTwo alloc] init];
// build mutable array mArray
// ...
one.objectArray = mArray;
two.objectArray = mArray;
Or do you need to make changes to the two arrays in different ways? The try this (as suggested by Chris above) :
ClassOne *one = [[ClassOne alloc] init];
ClassTwo *two = [[ClassTwo alloc] init];
// build mutable array mArray
// ...
one.objectArray = mArray;
two.objectArray = [mArray mutableCopy];
again, if this isn't what you need then you'll have to give us a more precise question or problem that we can identify.