Constants in Objective C

Question

I'm developing a Cocoa app, and I'm using constant NSStrings as ways to store key names for my preferences. I understand this is a good idea because it allows easy changing of keys if necessary. Plus, it's the whole 'separate your data from your logic' notion. Anyway, is there a good way to make these constants defined once for the whole app? I'm sure that there's an easy and intelligent way, but right now my classes just redefine the ones they use. Suck.

Thanks.

Answer 1

If you want something like global constants; a quick an dirty way is to put the constant declarations into the pch file.

Answer 2

Easiest way:

// Prefs.h
#define PREFS_MY_CONSTANT @"prefs_my_constant"

Better way:

// Prefs.h
extern NSString * const PREFS_MY_CONSTANT;

// Prefs.m
NSString * const PREFS_MY_CONSTANT = @"prefs_my_constant";

One benefit of the second is that changing the value of a constant does not cause a rebuild of your entire program.

Answer 3

As Abizer said, you could put it into the PCH file. Another way that isn't so dirty is to make a include file for all of your keys and then either include that in the file you're using the keys in, or, include it in the PCH. With them in their own include file, that at least gives you one place to look for and define all of these constants.

Answer 4

You should create a header file like

// Constants.h
extern NSString * const MyFirstConstant;
extern NSString * const MySecondConstant;
//etc.

You can include this file in each file that uses the constants or in the pre-compiled header for the project.

You define these constants in a .m file like

// Constants.m
NSString * const MyFirstConstant = @"FirstConstant";
NSString * const MySecondConstant = @"SecondConstant";

Constants.m should be added to your application/framework's target so that it is linked in to the final product.

The advantage of using string constants instead of #define'd constants is that you can test for equality using pointer comparison (stringInstance == MyFirstConstant) which is much faster than string comparison ([stringInstance isEqualToString:MyFirstConstant]) (and easier to read, IMO).

Answer 5

And what you think about using a class method ? :

+(NSString*)theMainTitle
{
    return @"Hello World";
}

I use it sometimes.