NSString property: copy or retain?

Question

Let\'s say I have a class called SomeClass with a string property name:

@interface SomeClass : NSObject
{
    NSString* name;
}

@p         


        

Answer 1

You should use copy all the time to declare NSString property

@property (nonatomic, copy) NSString* name;

You should read these for more information on whether it returns immutable string (in case mutable string was passed) or returns a retained string (in case immutable string was passed)

NSCopying Protocol Reference

Implement NSCopying by retaining the original instead of creating a new copy when the class and its contents are immutable

Value Objects

So, for our immutable version, we can just do this:

- (id)copyWithZone:(NSZone *)zone
{
    return self;
}