get type of NSNumber

Question

I want to get the type of NSNumber instance.

I found out on http://www.cocoadev.com/index.pl?NSNumber this:

 NSNumber *myNum = [[NSNumber alloc] initWithB         


        

Answer 1

objCType documentation states that The returned type does not necessarily match the method the number object was created with

Secondly, other methods of comparing the class of number to a given class type or assuming boolean number instances to be shared singletons are not documented behaviour.

A more(not completely though) reliable way is to depend on NSJSONSerialisation as it correctly recognises number instances created with bool and outputs true/false in json. This is something we can expect Apple to take care of while moving with new SDKs and on different architectures. Below is the code:

+(BOOL) isBoolType:(NSNumber*) number {

    NSError* err;
    NSData* jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:@{@"key":number}
                                                       options:0
                                                         error:&err];

    NSString* jsonString = [[NSString alloc] 
                              initWithData:jsonData
                                  encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

    return [jsonString containsString:@"true"]
            || [jsonString containsString:@"false"];

}