Objective C NSMutableString* property retain count oddity

Question

Hi everyone, if I create an nsmutablestring and then release it , shouldn't the retain count be 0?

my retain count stays 1.

NSMutableString *text = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];

[text release];

NSLog(@"retain count %d ", [text retainCount]);

Am I missing something ?

thanks.

Answer 1

There's no guarantee that retainCount will return the correct value at any point during the object's lifecycle. If you've created an NSMutableString using [[NSMutableString alloc] init] and you're calling release on it once, you're doing the right thing and shouldn't worry about it.

Answer 2

Apple says in its documentation that retainCount is of no use for memory management purposes because the frameworks and autorelease pools can keep hold of an object even if you have released it. http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Protocols/NSObject_Protocol/Reference/NSObject.html#//apple_ref/occ/intfm/NSObject/retainCount

Answer 3

Since you're doing this for debugging purposes, I'd suggest that you use categories to add some test code to an existing class. Any time you manually retain or release your object, you could call your new methods and use that to track your memory usage.