Objective-c – Accessing a method in a super class when it’s not exposed

introspectionobjective c

In a subclass, I'm overriding a method that is not exposed in the super class. I know that I have the correct signature as it is successfully overriding the superclass implementation. However, as part of the the new implementation, I need to call the superclass's implementation from the subclass's implementation.

Because it's not exposed I have to invoke the method via a call to performSelector:

SEL superClassSelector = NSSelectorFromString(@"methodToInvoke");
[super performSelector:superClassSelector];

However, in my application this results in an infinite recursive loop where the subclass's implementation is invoked every time I try to invoke the superclass's implementation.

Any thoughts?

I realize this is an atypical situation but unfortunately there's no way to get around what I'm trying to do.

Best Answer

The way I've dealt with this is to re-declare your super class' interface in your subclass implementation file with the method you want to call from the subclass

@interface MySuperclass()
- (void)superMethodIWantToCall;
@end

@implementation MySubclass


- (void)whateverFunction  {
    //now call super method here
    [super superMethodIWantToCall];
}

@end

I'm not sure if this is the best way to do things but it is simple and works for me!

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