Objective-C NSString Reference Types

Question

I have a simple question. If I am declaring NSString (ref type) as shown below:

 NSString *johnsMoney = @\"200\";
    NSString *marysMoney = johnsMoney;

           


        

Answer 1

johnsMoney and marysMoney are both pointers to strings.

When you write johnsMoney = @"100", it now points to a different string. This doesn't change marysMoney which still points to the original string.

If you were using NSMutableString, and you did [johnsMoney setString:@"100"], then it would change the underlying data (to which both variables would still be pointing).