a working colleague and me are struggling to properly answer the exact difference between two different ways of creating an array:
NSArray *array1 = @[@"this is my first entry",@"this is my second entry"];
NSArray *array2 = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"first entry",@"second entry",nil];
Thank you in advance!
The first way is preferred. Not only because it is "modern" (which doesn't mean much), shorter and less error prone.
There is a subtle problem with initWithObjects: If you manage to include an object pointer that is actually nil, then initWithObjects will use this as the trailing nil pointer, while the literal syntax will throw an exception.
NSString* text1 = textField1.text;
NSString* text2 = textField2.text;
NSString* text3 = textField3.text;
NSArray* array1 = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:text1, text2, text3, nil];
NSArray* array2 = @[text1, text2, text3];
If textField2 == nil and therefore text2 = nil, array1 will be an array with one element instead of the three that you expected, which could cause all kinds of hard to find bugs. array2 will throw an exception so you can fix your code.
I do agree with gnasher729
alloc allocates a chunk of memory to hold the object, and returns the pointer. To avoid memory leak, user has to properly release the allocated object also. So first one will be preferred for local use of any object.
Basically any object is being allocated
To know more please search for alloc, init methods.
array1 will be accessible only in the method" is incorrect. Both arrays will act the same. So, @Flowinho, the literal syntax will create arrays you can use throughout the class.They're both fine. The first one is more "modern" literal syntax and more preferred. And yes it works the same for NSString and NSDictionary just more of the modern literal syntax.
