CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iphoneobjective-ccoding-style
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Reputation: 29524

Is importing headers bad?

What are your opinions on #importing header files?

If I import:

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

and many more headers, and only use them once in a while, is it a waste? Does it slow down my app in any way? More importantly, does it increase the size of my app?

Thanks.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 109

Answers (2)

Mike
Mike

Reputation: 8963

Adding to quixoto's answer, Objective-C added the 

#import

Header. The original C header was:

#include

The difference is that #import actually checks to see if you have already included the header in your code. If you have, the #import statement does nothing.

Upvotes: 2

Ben Zotto
Ben Zotto

Reputation: 71008

Nope, it doesn't do any of those things.

Headers are used by the compiler to determine how to find where various types and classes are defined. Extraneous #imports do--kinda sorta--make the process of compiling your app slower by some unmeasurably small amount.

But the resulting binary application will not be any different in size or execution speed if you have redundant headers imported in your files.

Upvotes: 5

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