How to duplicate a UIButton in Objective C?

Question

The object inherits from NSObject.

Is there a method to create a copy of it as a new object?

Answer 1

UIButton does not conform to NSCopying, so you cannot make a copy via -copy.

However, it does conform to NSCoding, so you can archive the current instance, then unarchive a 'copy'.

NSData *archivedData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject: button];
UIButton *buttonCopy = [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData: archivedData];

Afterwards, you'll have to assign any additional properties that weren't carried over in the archive (e.g. the delegate) as necessary.