Scope between methods

Question

Another newbie question. I am trying to understand how to use scope effectively to organise my projects using classes to hold the data instead of having everything on the view controller. So, I am working on a couple of versions of a simple project to understand how scope works. I have a view controller hooked to a view. In that view there are buttons that when clicked show images. I want to add another button that randomizes the images. I also have a class called "Cards" to hold the cards and the methods for creating and shuffling the cards. I have duplicated the project, so I have one that works and one that doesn't.

First project. These are the files:

view controller h file:

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import "Cards.h"

@interface ViewController : UIViewController

- (IBAction)buttonPressed:(id)sender;

@end

view contoller m file:

#import "ViewController.h"

@interface ViewController ()

@end

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    Cards *instance = [[Cards alloc] init];

    instance.images = [instance createImages];

    NSLog(@"I've got %lu Images", (unsigned long)instance.images.count);

    instance.shuffled = [instance shuffleImages];

    NSLog(@"Image numbers shuffled: %@", instance.shuffled);
  }

- (IBAction)buttonPressed:(id)sender {

   //Nothing hooked to this yet

}

- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning {
    [super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
    // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
}

@end

Cards h file:

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Cards : NSObject

// Creating Images

@property NSMutableArray *images;

- (NSMutableArray*) createImages;

//Shuffling Images

@property NSMutableArray *shuffled;

- (NSMutableArray*) shuffleImages;

@end

Cards m file:

#import "Cards.h"

@implementation Cards

- (NSMutableArray*) createImages{
    self.images = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:

                   [UIImage imageNamed:@"Image1.png"],
                   [UIImage imageNamed:@"Image2.png"],
                   [UIImage imageNamed:@"Image3.png"],
                   [UIImage imageNamed:@"Image4.png"], nil];

    return self.images;
}

- (NSMutableArray*) shuffleImages{

    NSUInteger imageCount = [self.images count];

    NSMutableArray *localvar = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];

    for (int tileID = 0; tileID < imageCount; tileID++){
        [localvar addObject:[NSNumber
                             numberWithInt:tileID]];
    }

    for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < imageCount; ++i) {
            NSInteger nElements = imageCount - i;
            NSInteger n = (arc4random() % nElements) + i;
            [localvar exchangeObjectAtIndex:i
                                    withObjectAtIndex:n];
    }

    return localvar;
}

@end

This works and I get the expected output on the console:

2015-12-31 23:43:44.885 VCScope[2138:533369] I've got 4 Images
2015-12-31 23:43:44.886 VCScope[2138:533369] Image numbers shuffled: (
    0,
    2,
    3,
    1
)

Second project:

What I want to do, is put a button to randomize the images only when the button is pressed and not as part of viewDidLoad. So, in my second project, I have the same files for the view controller.h and for both the Cards.h and Cards.m, but on the view controller.m I move the calling of the method for the shuffling of the cards to a UIButton method, like so:

new View controller m file:

#import "ViewController.h"

@interface ViewController ()

@end

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    Cards *instance = [[Cards alloc] init];

    instance.images = [instance createImages];

    NSLog(@"I've got %lu Images", (unsigned long)instance.images.count);

  }

- (IBAction)buttonPressed:(id)sender {

    Cards *instance = [[Cards alloc] init];

    instance.shuffled = [instance shuffleImages];

    NSLog(@"Image numbers shuffled: %@", instance.shuffled);

}

- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning {
    [super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
    // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
}

@end

This outputs to the console the following:

2015-12-31 23:32:07.495 4StackVCScope[2029:486608] I've got 4 Images
2015-12-31 23:32:11.924 4StackVCScope[2029:486608] Image numbers: (
)

So it's not working and I am guessing it's to do with scope. Can someone throw some light into this? thanks

Answer 1

Welcome to Stack Overflow. You mention you're a "newbie", but it would be helpful to know what background you have so I know how much detail is needed here.

Cards *instance = [[Cards alloc] init];

creates a fresh Cards instance in a local variable. You are doing this separately inside -viewDidLoad and in -buttonPressed:.

If you want one Cards object per ViewController, then the view controller needs to have per-instance storage for it. There are several possible ways to do this. Which one you pick is a question of code style and API design.

If the Cards instance is for internal use only, you can declare an ivar in your @implementation block:

@implementation ViewController {
    Cards *_cards;
}

- (void)viewDidLoad { _cards = ... }

- (IBAction)buttonPressed:(id)sender { access _cards }

@end

(Ivars can be declared in the public @interface as well, but I wouldn't recommend that as it leaks implementation details.)

Or you can use a property in the public interface:

// in your .h file:
@interface ViewController
@property (nonatomic) Cards *cards;
@end

// in your @implementation:
- (void)viewDidLoad { self.cards = ... }

- (IBAction)buttonPressed:(id)sender { access self.cards }

A property can also be privately declared in a class extension:

// in your .m file:
@interface ViewController ()
@property (nonatomic) Cards *cards;
@end