Hi guys,

I have a very basic question, I'm a java programmer and I'm not really familiar with alloc/release/..

I've an NSMutableArray called nextBalls containing UIImageViews:


My question: Do I have to release the allocated UIImageViews in my NSMutableArray nextBalls if not needed anymore? Or are they automatically released if I apply ?

Someone said I have to release all objects that i allocated, that's why im asking!

Thanks in advance

The array retains it on adding, releases it on removal. So think of it this way:

1) You create the image: retain=1
2) You add to the array: retain=2
3) You remove from the array: retain=1
4) You release it again: retain=0, it is deleted

This is where autorelease comes into play. Autorelease the image after creating it, and its retain will be decremented by one in the next event loop. This way you can basically forget about it, and when it's removed from the array, so long as nobody else has retained it it will be freed.

Garbage collection is obviously preferable, but as manual memory management goes, retain/release/autorelease aren't too bad.

Ok I do understand it now! Thank you for that excellent explanation!

Note that most of Cocoa's default factory methods (those that obscure alloc, such as +[NSMutableArray array]) automatically apply autorelease, thus requiring a retain call.

So if in some object initialization method, you must either say myArray = [[NSMutableArray array] retain]; or myArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

"Must" is not so. "Likely want to" is more appropriate. It depends on how the array is being used.

yes, of course =)

If a variable is intended for local use, retaining will result in memory leaks. Thanks for catching my mistake