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

Since name is a (immutable) NSString, copy or retain makes no difference if you set another NSString to name. In another word, copy behaves just like retain, increasing the reference count by one. I think that is an automatic optimization for immutable classes, since they are immutable and of no need to be cloned. But when a NSMutalbeString mstr is set to name, the content of mstr will be copied for the sake of correctness.