Understanding NSString comparison

Question

Both the following comparisons evaluate to true:

1)

@\"foo\" == @\"foo\";

2)

NSString *myString1 = @\"foo\";
NSStri         


        

Answer 1

An example demonstrating how address comparison as a surrogate for string comparison will break:

    NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];

    NSString *s1 = @"foo";
    NSString *s2 = @"foo";
    NSString *s3 = [[[NSString alloc] initWithString:@"foo"] autorelease];
    NSMutableString *s4 = [NSMutableString stringWithString:@"foobar"];
    [s4 replaceOccurrencesOfString:@"bar"
                        withString:@""
                           options:NSLiteralSearch
                             range:NSMakeRange(0, [s4 length])];

    NSLog(@"s1 = %p\n", s1);
    NSLog(@"s2 = %p\n", s2);
    NSLog(@"s3 = %p\n", s3);
    NSLog(@"s4 = %p\n", s4); // distinct from s1

    NSLog(@"%i", [s1 isEqualToString:s4]); // 1

    [pool release];