Objective-c – NSMutableArray add Object as pointer only

cocoansmutablearraynsnumberobjective-c

I have this little code

 NSMutableArray *myArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; 
 NSNumber *myNumber = [NSNumber numberWithDouble:752.65];

 [myArray addObject:myNumber];

With this code I store Objects inside an array. But now I have two objects independent from each other.

If I change myNumber after it's been added to the array the value inside the array does not change. How can I archive that? I tried to give a pointer only to the array but it did not work.

Best Solution

You cannot put a variable into an array, and that's what myNumber is: a variable. A variable is a container, and so is an array; the difference is that a variable is not also an object*, like the array is, and you can only put objects into an array.

What you pass to addObject: is not the variable myNumber, but the object it contains. That's what you are adding to the array.

To add the variable instead of the object inside it, you would need to do addObject:&myNumber, in order to pass a pointer to the variable itself. But this won't work, for two reasons:

As I mentioned, the variable is not an object, and you can only add objects.
Since this is a local variable, it will perish when the function exits; then you have a pointer to dead memory inside your array. When you go to access whatever's at that pointer, your program would crash.

There are three solutions that will work:

As f3lix suggests, create a mutable number class, and create your number object from this class instead of NSNumber. You'll need to override all the primitive methods of NSValue as described in the NSNumber documentation.
Replace the object in the array instead of mutating it. Of course, this requires having access to the array from everywhere you'd want to change the number.
Create a model object class that has the number as a property.

That last solution is, in my opinion, the correct one. I doubt you are managing only a list of numbers; more likely, you are showing the user a list of something that has the number as a property. Model this in your code, and everything becomes much simpler.

Your code after replacing the bare NSNumbers with model objects will be something like:

MyModelObject *myModelObject = [[[MyModelObject alloc] init] autorelease];
[myModelObject setNumber:[NSNumber numberWithDouble:42.0]];
[myArray addObject:myModelObject];

//Some time later, you decide to change the number.
[[myArray objectAtIndex:idx] setNumber:[NSNumber numberWithDouble:43.0]];
//Or:
for (MyModelObject *obj in myArray) {
    [obj setNumber:1000.0];
}

*I mean Cocoa objects. The C language does call any pointer, int, etc. an “object”, but this is a different definition.

Compare method

Either you implement a compare-method for your object:

- (NSComparisonResult)compare:(Person *)otherObject {
    return [self.birthDate compare:otherObject.birthDate];
}

NSArray *sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)];

NSSortDescriptor (better)

or usually even better:

NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor;
sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"birthDate"
                                           ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:@[sortDescriptor]];

You can easily sort by multiple keys by adding more than one to the array. Using custom comparator-methods is possible as well. Have a look at the documentation.

Blocks (shiny!)

There's also the possibility of sorting with a block since Mac OS X 10.6 and iOS 4:

NSArray *sortedArray;
sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingComparator:^NSComparisonResult(Person *a, Person *b) {
    return [a.birthDate compare:b.birthDate];
}];

Performance

The -compare: and block-based methods will be quite a bit faster, in general, than using NSSortDescriptor as the latter relies on KVC. The primary advantage of the NSSortDescriptor method is that it provides a way to define your sort order using data, rather than code, which makes it easy to e.g. set things up so users can sort an NSTableView by clicking on the header row.

Ios – How to make a UITextField move up when the keyboard is present – on starting to edit

You will only need a ScrollView if the contents you have now do not fit in the iPhone screen. (If you are adding the ScrollView as the superview of the components just to make the TextField scroll up when keyboard comes up, then it's not needed.)
The standard way to prevent the TextFields from being covered by the keyboard is to move the view up/down whenever the keyboard is shown.

Here is some sample code:

#define kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD 80.0

-(void)keyboardWillShow {
    // Animate the current view out of the way
    if (self.view.frame.origin.y >= 0)
    {
        [self setViewMovedUp:YES];
    }
    else if (self.view.frame.origin.y < 0)
    {
        [self setViewMovedUp:NO];
    }
}

-(void)keyboardWillHide {
    if (self.view.frame.origin.y >= 0)
    {
        [self setViewMovedUp:YES];
    }
    else if (self.view.frame.origin.y < 0)
    {
        [self setViewMovedUp:NO];
    }
}

-(void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)sender
{
    if ([sender isEqual:mailTf])
    {
        //move the main view, so that the keyboard does not hide it.
        if  (self.view.frame.origin.y >= 0)
        {
            [self setViewMovedUp:YES];
        }
    }
}

//method to move the view up/down whenever the keyboard is shown/dismissed
-(void)setViewMovedUp:(BOOL)movedUp
{
    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.3]; // if you want to slide up the view

    CGRect rect = self.view.frame;
    if (movedUp)
    {
        // 1. move the view's origin up so that the text field that will be hidden come above the keyboard 
        // 2. increase the size of the view so that the area behind the keyboard is covered up.
        rect.origin.y -= kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD;
        rect.size.height += kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD;
    }
    else
    {
        // revert back to the normal state.
        rect.origin.y += kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD;
        rect.size.height -= kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD;
    }
    self.view.frame = rect;

    [UIView commitAnimations];
}


- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    // register for keyboard notifications
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                         selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow)
                                             name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification
                                           object:nil];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                         selector:@selector(keyboardWillHide)
                                             name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification
                                           object:nil];
}

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];
    // unregister for keyboard notifications while not visible.
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self
                                             name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification
                                           object:nil];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self
                                             name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification
                                           object:nil];
}

Best Solution

Related Solutions

Ios – How to sort an NSMutableArray with custom objects in it

Compare method

NSSortDescriptor (better)

Blocks (shiny!)

Performance

Ios – How to make a UITextField move up when the keyboard is present – on starting to edit

Related Question