How to get the reference count of an NSObject?

Question

Is there a way to fetch the current reference count for an NSObject (i.e. NSString)?

Answer 1

using CFGetRetainCount function

Example :

print(CFGetRetainCount(object))

Read more here.

Answer 2

As @Ben S said, it's the retainCount method. However, you're asking the wrong question, because:

Important: Typically there should be no reason to explicitly ask an object what its retain count is (see retainCount). The result is often misleading, as you may be unaware of what framework objects have retained an object in which you are interested. In debugging memory management issues, you should be concerned only with ensuring that your code adheres to the ownership rules.

So here's the real question: why do you need to know?

Answer 3

retainCount

But you should consider using CFGetRetainCount instead