In Objective-C, it is possible to pass a class as a parameter to a method:
- (void) methodThatTakesClass:(Class)theClass;
And it is possible to pass an instance that is conforming to a protocol as a parameter:
- (void) myConformInstance:(id <MyProtocol>)theObject;
Is it possible to use the combined functionality? A method which takes a class which is conforming to a certain protocol.
Yes. The following is a valid program which will log the NSObject class.
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
void f(Class <NSObject> c) {
NSLog(@"%@",c);
}
int main() {
f([NSObject class]);
}
This would cause a compiler error if you tried to pass a class which doesn't conform to NSObject, such as the Object
class. You can also use it for methods.
- (void)printClass:(Class <NSObject>)c;
also valid:
@interface Something: Object {
}
- (void) foo:(int(*)(void))bar;
@end
@implementation Something
- (void) foo:(int(*)(void))bar {
return (*bar)();
}
@end
int someFunc( void ) {
return 9;
}
int main ( int argc, char **argv ) {
Something *object = [[Something alloc] init];
printf( "%i\n", [object foo:&someFunc] );
[object release];
return 0;
}