Using global variables in Objective-C

Question

First of all, I tried almost all the solutions given in stackoverflow but I didn\'t succeed in implement global vars, I even did a step by step tutorial and still I get the

Answer 1

One way to implement global variables, and to manage their lifetime (i.e. that they are initialized) and even to provide global methods is to implement a class exposing those variables/methods and to use the singleton pattern:

GlobalVars.h:

#import 

@interface GlobalVars : NSObject
{
    NSMutableArray *_truckBoxes;
    NSMutableArray *_farmerlist;
    NSString *_farmerCardNumber;
    NSString *_fName;
}

+ (GlobalVars *)sharedInstance;

@property(strong, nonatomic, readwrite) NSMutableArray *truckBoxes;
@property(strong, nonatomic, readwrite) NSMutableArray *farmerList;
@property(strong, nonatomic, readwrite) NSString *farmerCardNumber;
@property(strong, nonatomic, readwrite) NSString *fName;

@end

GlobalVars.m:

#import "GlobalVars.h"

@implementation GlobalVars

@synthesize truckBoxes = _truckBoxes;
@synthesize farmerList = _farmerList;
@synthesize frameCardNumber = _frameCardNumber;
@synthesize fName = _fName;

+ (GlobalVars *)sharedInstance {
    static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
    static GlobalVars *instance = nil;
    dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
        instance = [[GlobalVars alloc] init];
    });
    return instance;
}

- (id)init {
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        _truckBoxes = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
        _farmerlist = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
        // Note these aren't allocated as [[NSString alloc] init] doesn't provide a useful object
        _farmerCardNumber = nil;
        _fName = nil;
    }
    return self;
}

@end

You can then use these global variables like this, for example:

GlobalVars *globals = [GlobalVars sharedInstance];
globals.fName = @"HelloWorld.txt";
[globals.farmerList addObject:@"Old Macdonald"];
[self processList:[globals farmerList]];

However, please consider:

• You don't need to use global variables like this; you should be able to create a model object which is created as necessary and reference to it passed to the views. This is MVC.
• You also posted a stack trace of an unrelated issue which is extremely common with Objective-C; only you can fix this error, once you realize what it is.