What's the point of NSAssert, actually?

Question

I have to ask this, because: The only thing I recognize is, that if the assertion fails, the app crashes. Is that the reason why to use NSAssert? Or what else is the benefit of it? And is it right to put an NSAssert just above any assumption I make in code, like a function that should never receive a -1 as param but may a -0.9 or -1.1?

Answer 1

Assert is to make sure a value is what its supposed to be. If an assertion fails that means something went wrong and so the app quits. One reason to use assert would be if you have some function that will not behave or will create very bad side effects if one of the parameters passed to it is not exactly some value (or a range of values) you can put an assert to make sure that value is what you expect it to be, and if it's not then something is really wrong, and so the app quits. Assert can be very useful for debugging/unit testing, and also when you provide frameworks to stop the users from doing "evil" things.

Answer 2

I can't really speak to NSAssert, but I imagine that it works similarly to C's assert().

assert() is used to enforce a semantic contract in your code. What does that mean, you ask?

Well, it's like you said: if you have a function that should never receive a -1, you can have assert() enforce that:

void gimme_positive_ints(int i) {
  assert(i > 0);
}

And now you'll see something like this in the error log (or STDERR):

Assertion i > 0 failed: file example.c, line 2

So not only does it safe-guard against potentially bad inputs but it logs them in a useful, standard way.

Oh, and at least in C assert() was a macro, so you could redefine assert() as a no-op in your release code. I don't know if that's the case with NSAssert (or even assert() any more), but it was pretty useful to compile out those checks.

Answer 3

NSAssert gives you more than just crashing the app. It tells you the class, method, and the line where the assertion occurred. All the assertions can also be easily deactivated using NS_BLOCK_ASSERTIONS. Thus making it more suitable for debugging. On the other hand, throwing an NSException only crashes the app. It also does not tell about the location of the exception, nor can it be disabled so simply. See the difference in the images below.

The app crashes because an assertion also raises an exception, as the NSAssert documentation states:

When invoked, an assertion handler prints an error message that includes the method and class names (or the function name). It then raises an NSInternalInconsistencyException exception.

NSAssert:

NSException:

Answer 4

Apart from what everyone said above, the default behaviour of NSAssert() (unlike C’s assert()) is to throw an exception, which you can catch and handle. For instance, Xcode does this.

Answer 5

Just to clarify, as somebody mentioned but not fully explained, the reason for having and using asserts instead of just creating custom code (doing ifs and raising an exception for bad data, for instance) is that asserts SHOULD be disabled for production applications.

While developing and debugging, asserts are enabled for you to catch errors. The program will halt when an assert is evaluated as false. But, when compiling for production, the compiler omits the assertion code and actually MAKE YOUR PROGRAM RUN FASTER. By then, hopefully, you have fixed all the bugs. In case your program still has bugs while in production (when assertions are disabled and the program "skips over" the assertions), your program will probably end up crashing at some other point.

From NSAssert's help: "Assertions are disabled if the preprocessor macro NS_BLOCK_ASSERTIONS is defined." So, just put the macro in your distribution target [only].

Answer 6

NSAssert (and its stdlib equivalent assert) are to detect programming errors during development. You should never have an assertion that fails in a production (released) application. So you might assert that you never pass a negative number to a method that requires a positive argument. If the assertion ever fails during testing, you have a bug. If, however, the value that's passed is entered by the user, you need to do proper validation of the input rather than relying on the assertion in production (you can set a #define for release builds that disables NSAssert*.

Answer 7

Assertions are commonly used to enforce the intended use of a particular method or piece of logic. Let's say you were writing a method which calculates the sum of two greater than zero integers. In order to make sure the method was always used as intended you would probably put an assert which tests that condition.

Short answer: They enforce that your code is used only as intended.

Answer 8

It's worthwhile to point out that aside from run time checking, assert programming is a important facility used when you design your code by contract.

More info on the subject of assertion and design by contract can be found below:

Assertion (software development)

Design by contract

Programming With Assertions

Design by Contract, by Example [Paperback]

Answer 9

To fully answer his question, the point of any type of assert is to aid debugging. It is more valuable to catch errors at their source, then to catch them in the debugger when they cause crashes.

For example, you may pass a value to a function expects values in a certain range. The function may store the value for later use, and on later use the application crashes. The call stack seen in this scenario would not show the source of the bad value. It's better to catch the bad value as it comes in to find out who's passing the bad value and why.

Answer 10

NSAssert make app crash when it match with the condition. If not match with the condition the next statements will execute. Look for the EX below:

I just create an app to test what is the task of NSAssert is:

    - (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
    [self testingFunction:2];
}

-(void)testingFunction: (int)anNum{
    // if anNum < 2 -> the app will crash
    // and the NSLog statement will not execute
    // that mean you cannot see the string: "This statement will execute when anNum < 2"
    // into the log console window of Xcode
    NSAssert(anNum >= 2, @"number you enter less than 2");
    // If anNum >= 2 -> the app will not crash and the below 
    // statement will execute
    NSLog(@"This statement will execute when anNum < 2");
}

into my code the app will not crash.And the test case is:

• anNum >= 2 -> The app will not crash and you can see the log string:"This statement will execute when anNum < 2" into the outPut log console window
• anNum < 2 -> The app will crash and you can not see the log string:"This statement will execute when anNum < 2"