iphone - Weird behaviour with retainCount

Question

When I am logging retain count with NSArray and NSString objects, I am having uneven behavior. See the code below,

NSArray *aryTemp = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"One",nil];
NSLog(@"Retain Count :%d",[aryTemp retainCount]);

NSArray *aryTemp2 = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"One",nil];
NSLog(@"Retain Count :%d",[aryTemp2 retainCount]);

NSString *strTemp = @"One";
NSLog(@"Retain Count :%d",[strTemp retainCount]);

NSString *strTemp2 = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:@"One"];
NSLog(@"Retain Count :%d",[strTemp2 retainCount]);

And this is the output I am getting

2011-03-01 19:19:32.410 Test[14607:207] Retain Count :37
2011-03-01 19:19:32.412 Test[14607:207] Retain Count :1
2011-03-01 19:19:32.413 Test[14607:207] Retain Count :2147483647
2011-03-01 19:19:32.413 Test[14607:207] Retain Count :2147483647

What is the wrong with the code??

Thanks

Pratik Goswami

Answer 1

nothing wrong with 2147483647

2147483647 is INT_MAX. And INT_MAX is the retaincount for string literals (ie @"foo" strings defined in your code). This means they will never be released.

btw, don't use retainCount.