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A complete raw list of KVC accessor selector formats

2007-08-07 19:20:51 -08:00

Implementing and using (i.e., calling) these accessors will generate appropriate KVO notifications for free. (UPDATE 2008-11-10: If you’re targeting Leopard, declare and use (i.e., self.foo = bar) Obj-C 2 properties. Exception: Not in your init and dealloc methods, and that goes for regular accessors as well.)

Some are for arrays, some are for sets, some are only for mutable properties, and some are for all keys.

  • validate%s:error:
  • %sForKeyPath:
  • _%sForKeyPath:
  • get%s
  • is%s
  • _get%s
  • countOf%s
  • objectIn%sAtIndex:
  • %sAtIndexes:
  • get%s:range:
  • enumeratorOf%s
  • memberOf%s:
  • _is%s
  • set%s:
  • _set%s:
  • getPrimitive%s
  • primitive%s
  • setPrimitive%s:
  • add%sObject:
  • remove%s:
  • remove%sObject:
  • add%s:
  • intersect%s:
  • insertObject:in%sAtIndex:
  • insert%s:atIndexes:
  • removeObjectFrom%sAtIndex:
  • remove%sAtIndexes:
  • replaceObjectIn%sAtIndex:withObject:
  • replace%sAtIndexes:with%s:

Source: strings /S/L/F/Foundation.framework/Foundation.

Note that NSArrayController will not call the finer-grained array methods (e.g., insertObject:in%sAtIndex:) if you provide the basic get and set methods (%s and set%s:).

Categories: Cocoa; Programming. | Comments: 3 (feed).

3 Responses to “A complete raw list of KVC accessor selector formats”

  1. Petteri Kamppuri Says:
    November 26th, 2008 at 01:21:06

    Can you elaborate on your “Exception:” part? What do you mean exactly and what are the reasons behind the exception? Thanks! Btw. I found “How to work with a bound-to array” extremely useful.

  2. Peter Hosey Says:
    November 26th, 2008 at 01:51:44

    Petteri Kammpuri: Don’t use property-access expressions in init and dealloc methods, because the property access will call your accessors.

    In the former case, you may not have completely initialized the object yet; in the latter case, you may have partially destructed it. If you have custom accessors that reply on other properties of your object, this may be a problem. And you can’t say with 100% confidence that you will never, ever make a custom accessor for that property.

    So don’t do it.

    • In init methods (including initWithSomethingElse: methods), always assign the retained or copied object directly to the instance variable (in other words, myObject = [newObject retain], not self.myObject = newObject).
    • In dealloc methods, always get the object directly from the instance variable before you send release to it (in other words, [myObject release], not [self.myObject release]).
    • If you do write any custom accessor methods, they must, of course, directly access the instance variable. However, if an accessor for one property accesses another property, it should use property access for that.
    • In any other method, always use property access, never direct access. You can use local variables if speed becomes a problem (for example, if profiling shows a lot of time spent in a getter), but don’t worry about it until your profiler says otherwise.
  3. Petteri Kamppuri Says:
    November 26th, 2008 at 05:03:52

    Okay, thanks. The init case was what intrigued me the most. It’s probably easy to get right in the class you’re writing, but subclasses could break those assumptions, and using accessors might invoke subclass code when the subclass hasn’t been inited. That’s a good reason to stay away from accessors.

    I haven’t used accessors in dealloc methods, but I haven’t been as strict with inits. I’ll be from now on.

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