Issue with NSMutableArray visibility / retain

Question

Alright so I am a little new to the NSMutableArray class and I think I am missing something obvious. I have an object pass a NSMutable Array to my window controller like so in my.m:

summaryWindow   = [[SummaryWindowController alloc] init];
[summaryWindow setGlobalStatusArray:globalStatusArray];

I have the receiver method in the summaryWindow object as so:

-(void)setGlobalStatusArray:(NSMutableArray *)myArray
{

    if ([myArray count] >0) {
        if (globalStatusArray) {
            [globalStatusArray release];
        }
        globalStatusArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:myArray];

        NSLog(@"Summary Window Init with new array: %@",globalStatusArray);

I see the NSLog no problem, and in that same object (summaryWindow) I have the following method:

- (NSMutableArray *)getGlobalStatusArray
{

    return globalStatusArray;
}

Now I have globalStatusArray declared in my .h file as

NSMutableArray   *globalStatusArray;

So shouldn't This be retained because I am using: initWithArray?

When I try to access this value in an another IBAction method:

- (IBAction)refreshButtonClicked:(id)sender
{
    NSLog(@"The user has clicked the update button");
    [ aBuffer addObjectsFromArray: globalStatusArray];
    NSLog(@"Buffer is currently:%@",aBuffer);
    [tableView reloadData];
}

The NSMutable array is null

2011-08-18 10:40:35.599 App Name[65677:1307] The user has clicked the update button
2011-08-18 10:40:35.600 App Name[65677:1307] Buffer is currently:(
)

I have tried using my own method to get the value i.e. [ self getGlobalStatusArray] to but I am missing something huge. FYI aBuffer is also declared in my .h ,

Answer 1

This code isn't doing anything useful:

if ([myArray count] >0) {
    if (globalStatusArray) {
        [globalStatusArray release];
    }
    globalStatusArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:myArray];

If the count of the old array is zero, it's leaking the actual array object. If the count is not zero, then it's releasing it properly. Just do the release and don't bother counting.

Are you sure there's actually something in myArray?

joe

Answer 2

As albertamg noted, that looks like an empty array rather than nil, and a released object doesn't magically become nil under normal circumstances anyway.

This smells strongly of two different objects. Try logging self in your methods and see if one instance is getting the array and another is interacting with the UI.