How do I convert NSMutableArray to NSArray?

Question

How do I convert NSMutableArray to NSArray in objective-c?

Answer 1

An NSMutableArray is a subclass of NSArray so you won't always need to convert but if you want to make sure that the array can't be modified you can create a NSArray either of these ways depending on whether you want it autoreleased or not:

/* Not autoreleased */
NSArray *array = [[NSArray alloc] initWithArray:mutableArray];

/* Autoreleased array */
NSArray *array = [NSArray arrayWithArray:mutableArray];

EDIT: The solution provided by Georg Schölly is a better way of doing it and a lot cleaner, especially now that we have ARC and don't even have to call autorelease.