Objective-C style question: do "release" or "nil" properties in dealloc?

Question

Possible Duplicates:
Why shouldn't I use Objective C 2.0 accessors in init/dealloc?
dealloc, use release or set to nil for properties?

Hi,

Apple usually release ivars in dealloc but is there anything wrong with nilling the properties in dealloc?

I mean instead of this:

- (void) dealoc(){
   [myRetainedProperty release];
   [super dealloc];
}

write code like this:

- (void) dealoc(){
   self.myRetainedProperty = nil;
   [super dealloc];
}

I know that it is one additional method call but on the other hand it is safer as it doesn't crashes when you change your property form retain to assign and forget to amend dealloc.

What do you think? Can you think about any other reason to use release instead of setting to nil besides performance?

UPDATE: It appeared that this question was a duplicate of "Why shouldn't I use Objective C 2.0 accessors in init/dealloc?".

There's more than one question out there: possible duplicate of [dealloc, use release or set to nil for properties?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4124049/dealloc-use-release-or-set-to-nil-for-properties) — Dan Rosenstark, Jan 03 '11 at 17:11

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 09:58

2

Something quite similar has already been discussed: Why shouldn't I use Objective C 2.0 accessors in init/dealloc?

edited May 23 '17 at 09:58

Community

1
1

answered Jan 02 '11 at 18:58

mplappert

1,314
11
18

Thanks for that link it cleared the matter up. – Piotr Czapla Jan 02 '11 at 19:13
Vote to close as a duplicate. Then this question will redirect to that one. – Chris Hanson Jan 02 '11 at 21:30

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 02 '11 at 18:56

i was using the "release" style for quite some time, then i switched to setting the properties to nil afterwards. I think if you just release the ivar then you have the chance of reusing it in the dealloc later on, which might not happen but still ... Also i consider that setting the properties to nil conforms more to the "encapsulate your ivars with properties" theory ..

So I consider better using the "setting to nil" style, however i don't know any real reasons for using only release ...

Moszi

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 02 '11 at 18:59

0

Yeah, assign nil looks better, until you will forget to write self. before property name :)

answered Jan 02 '11 at 18:59

Nickolay Olshevsky

13,706
1
34
48

Nice reason :). Fortunately the leak instruments will catch that problem. – Piotr Czapla Jan 02 '11 at 19:07

Objective-C style question: do "release" or "nil" properties in dealloc?

3 Answers3

Linked