What does @[] mean?

Question

I am looking at a tutorial and I am not sure what the line of code means:

self.objectsToShare = @[URL];

URL is an NSURL, and self.objectsToShare is an NSArray.

["Apple committed a *new (as of 2012) patch* to the llvm project adding support for new Objective-C *literal syntax* for NSArray, NSDictionary and NSNumber .."](http://joris.kluivers.nl/blog/2012/03/13/new-objectivec-literal-syntax/) — user2864740, Oct 22 '13 at 18:51
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9693647/is-there-some-literal-dictionary-or-array-syntax-in-objective-c — user2864740, Oct 22 '13 at 18:52

Léo Natan · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-22T19:03:41.760

5

It is a shorthand syntax for array creation.

Instead of:

[NSArray arrayWithObjects:&URL count:1];

edited Oct 22 '13 at 19:03

answered Oct 22 '13 at 18:51

Léo Natan

Hussain Shabbir · Answer 2 · 2013-10-22T18:57:26.400

2

It mean you are assigning to object an array Like below:-

NSArray*arr=[[NSArray alloc]initWithObject:URL];

Samething you can write like this as well:-

NSArray*arr=@[URL];

edited Oct 22 '13 at 18:57

answered Oct 22 '13 at 18:51

Hussain Shabbir

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 22 '13 at 18:50

Create an array with one object: URL.

You can create arrays and dictionaries using the @ symbol in objective c as follows:

NSDictionary *dict = @{
 @"string key":@"string value",
 (id)objectKey:(id)objectValue
};

NSArray *arr = @[(id)objectValue,@"string value"];

3 Answers3