Short and useful Objective-C snippets?

Question

Since XCode 4, there is now a Code Snippets section which offers the snippets via auto-complete when typing. I'd be very interested in snippets you all have stored in there. What snippets save you the most time (and why)?

Please only post actual snippets (meaning no snarky "don't need no stinkin' snippets", and no "i love snippets that do <XYZ>"), and only snippets that are short and sweet (i.e. no more than ~20 lines at the most...). If a snippet is not obviously useful, also explain why you think it is. ;)

Community wiki as a concept has changed over time - you can no longer simply mark a question as community wiki (although you can still tag answers in this way). However, a moderator can still make this change if requested to do so and if the question is deemed valid. — John Parker, Mar 11 '11 at 07:51
I'm going to mark this as CW, but please take care to manage this question. Flag for help if you need it. I'll re-visit it in a few days. If this starts collecting noise, we have no choice but to close it. — Tim Post, Mar 11 '11 at 08:09
I've also made a minor edit to your question so that more protracted answers are invited. — Tim Post, Mar 11 '11 at 08:17
Great question! I haven't seen Xcode 4 yet and I'm on iOS at the moment, but I'll try to get to this one soon! — Moshe, Mar 11 '11 at 08:30
Well I suppose that people are not willing to give their secret formula while developing in `objective-c` — Robin, Mar 15 '11 at 04:12

Robin · Answer 1 · 2020-01-21T11:17:32.913

I don't if this counts but I always use this snippet whenever I add a UITableView in any of my view controllers.

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *cellIdentifier = @"Cell";
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
    if(cell == nil)
    {
        cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle 
                                      reuseIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
            // Do something here......................
    }
    // Do something here too .........................
    return cell;
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    return ;
}

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
    return ;
}

its quite handy if you are not using a UITableViewController to show table contents.

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 17 '11 at 07:47

9

Dispatch block on the current queue after given number of seconds:

dispatch_after(dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, <#seconds#>*1e9),
    dispatch_get_current_queue(), <#block#>);

answered Mar 17 '11 at 07:47

zoul

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score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 11 '11 at 13:44

Here are my two comment snippets. I use them a lot.

Header comment:

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# pragma mark -
# pragma mark <#comment#>
# pragma mark -
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sub comment:

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  <#comment#>
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 11 '11 at 09:24

6

I’m often adding private class interfaces with class extensions:

@interface <#ClassName#> ()
@end

This is to keep the public interface completely free from internal stuff, especially now that we can have purely synthesized properties (example gist).

edited Mar 11 '11 at 09:24

Epaga

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answered Mar 11 '11 at 08:57

zoul

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score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 06 '12 at 11:27

5

A couple of collections are here:

https://github.com/mneorr/snippie/tree/master/backup

and here:

https://github.com/jad/xcode-code-snippets

which you can stick in this folder:

~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/CodeSnippets

answered Sep 06 '12 at 11:27

caliss

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1
3

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 14 '13 at 13:13

5

While debugging this snippet is really useful. It let you know Class Name, Function Name and you can add your comments also.

NSLog(@"%s [Line %d] %@ ", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, __LINE__,<#comment#>);

answered Feb 14 '13 at 13:13

Akshay Nalawade

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I suggest you add the DLog macro to your PCH instead: http://stackoverflow.com/a/969291/3141234 – Alexander Aug 21 '14 at 19:35

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 05 '12 at 11:36

4

This is the Blog, that I have created for the same purpose...

http://ios-funda.blogspot.in/

answered Oct 05 '12 at 11:36

Shekhar Gupta

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score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 11 '11 at 09:20

4

There does not seem to be a class category between the factory snippets:

@interface <#ClassName#> (<#CategoryName#>)
@end

answered Mar 11 '11 at 09:20

zoul

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 04 '14 at 13:43

0

I also have the standard view lifecycle methods in my snippets (which get used daily):

I use keyboard shortcut vwa for

- (void) viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear: animated];


}

vdl for viewDidLoad etc.

answered Mar 04 '14 at 13:43

Ashley Mills

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Short and useful Objective-C snippets?

9 Answers9

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