CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-cnsarrayobjective-c-literals
Bot
Bot

Reputation: 11855

Using @[array, of, items] vs [NSArray arrayWithObjects:]

Is there a difference between

NSArray *myArray = @[objectOne, objectTwo, objectThree];

and

NSArray *myArray = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:objectOne, objectTwo, objectThree, nil];

Is one preferred over the other?

Upvotes: 12

Views: 3470

Answers (2)

Martin R
Martin R

Reputation: 539925

They are almost identical, but not completely. The Clang documentation on Objective-C Literals states:

Array literal expressions expand to calls to +[NSArray arrayWithObjects:count:], which validates that all objects are non-nil. The variadic form, +[NSArray arrayWithObjects:] uses nil as an argument list terminator, which can lead to malformed array objects.

So

NSArray *myArray = @[objectOne, objectTwo, objectThree];

would throw a runtime exception if objectTwo == nil, but

NSArray *myArray = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:objectOne, objectTwo, objectThree, nil];

would create an array with one element in that case.

Upvotes: 32

DrummerB
DrummerB

Reputation: 40211

No. At compile time the @[...] literals will be changed to arrayWithObjects:

The only difference is that @[...] is only supported in newer versions of the LLVM compiler.

Upvotes: -2

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