What is the difference between "copy" and "retain"?

objective-c nsstring copy retain
senthilMuthu picture senthilMuthu · Mar 8, 2010 · Viewed 28.7k times · Source

What is the difference between copy and retain for NSString?

- (void)setString:(NSString*)newString
{
    string = [newString copy];
}

Answer

Malaxeur picture Malaxeur · Mar 8, 2010

In a general setting, retaining an object will increase its retain count by one. This will help keep the object in memory and prevent it from being blown away. What this means is that if you only hold a retained version of it, you share that copy with whomever passed it to you.

Copying an object, however you do it, should create another object with duplicate values. Think of this as a clone. You do NOT share the clone with whomever passed it to you.

When dealing with NSStrings in particular, you may not be able to assume that whoever is giving you an NSString is truly giving you an NSString. Someone could be handing you a subclass (NSMutableString, in this case) which means that they could potentially modify the values under the covers. If your application depends on the value passed in, and someone changes it on you, you can run into trouble.

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