In my past applications I have been #importing into my *.h files where needed. I have not really thought much about this before as I have not had any problems, but today I spotted something that got me to thinking that maybe I should be #import-ing into my .m files and using @class where needed in the headers (.h) Can anyone shine any light on the way its supposed to be done or best practice?
gary
In any source file, import only what you need to make that individual file valid for compilation. @class is also preferable to importing another class's headers, because the less you load the less you compile.
As a rule of thumb it is fine to use @class in your header file and an #import in your .m files. You'll get an error if you do it wrong from the compiler :)
Basically, if you are only making reference to the class you want to use, but not any specifics of the class then @class is all that is required. It tells the compiler "I'm going to be using this class here - you don't need to know much about it, other than that it is valid". (The compiler then knows to reserve a pointer for it).
If you were going to be referencing any properties/methods within the class, the compiler would start complaining (as it wouldn't have enough information about the class) so in those cases it wants you to import the file (#import xxx) in order to provide the class specifics to the compiler.
Hope this helps