Objective-C Runtime

Programming Guide
Contents

Introduction 5
Organization of This Document 5
See Also 5

Runtime Versions and Platforms 7

Legacy and Modern Versions 7
Platforms 7

Interacting with the Runtime 8

Objective-C Source Code 8
NSObject Methods 8
Runtime Functions 9

Messaging 10
The objc_msgSend Function 10
Using Hidden Arguments 13
Getting a Method Address 14

Dynamic Method Resolution 16

Dynamic Method Resolution 16
Dynamic Loading 17

Message Forwarding 18
Forwarding 18
Forwarding and Multiple Inheritance 20
Surrogate Objects 21
Forwarding and Inheritance 21

Type Encodings 24

Declared Properties 28
Property Type and Functions 28
Property Type String 29
Property Attribute Description Examples 30

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Contents

Document Revision History 33

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Figures and Tables

Messaging 10
Figure 3-1 Messaging Framework 12

Message Forwarding 18
Figure 5-1 Forwarding 20

Type Encodings 24
Table 6-1 Objective-C type encodings 24
Table 6-2 Objective-C method encodings 26

Declared Properties 28
Table 7-1 Declared property type encodings 30

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Introduction

The Objective-C language defers as many decisions as it can from compile time and link time to runtime.
Whenever possible, it does things dynamically. This means that the language requires not just a compiler, but
also a runtime system to execute the compiled code. The runtime system acts as a kind of operating system
for the Objective-C language; it’s what makes the language work.

This document looks at the NSObject class and how Objective-C programs interact with the runtime system.
In particular, it examines the paradigms for dynamically loading new classes at runtime, and forwarding
messages to other objects. It also provides information about how you can find information about objects
while your program is running.

You should read this document to gain an understanding of how the Objective-C runtime system works and
how you can take advantage of it. Typically, though, there should be little reason for you to need to know and
understand this material to write a Cocoa application.

Organization of This Document

This document has the following chapters:
● Runtime Versions and Platforms (page 7)
● Interacting with the Runtime (page 8)
● Messaging (page 10)
● Dynamic Method Resolution (page 16)
● Message Forwarding (page 18)
● Type Encodings (page 24)
● Declared Properties (page 28)

See Also
Objective-C Runtime Reference describes the data structures and functions of the Objective-C runtime support
library. Your programs can use these interfaces to interact with the Objective-C runtime system. For example,
you can add classes or methods, or obtain a list of all class definitions for loaded classes.

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Introduction
See Also

Programming with Objective-C describes the Objective-C language.

Objective-C Release Notes describes some of the changes in the Objective-C runtime in recent releases of OS
X.

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Runtime Versions and Platforms

There are different versions of the Objective-C runtime on different platforms.

Legacy and Modern Versions

There are two versions of the Objective-C runtime—“modern” and “legacy”. The modern version was introduced
with Objective-C 2.0 and includes a number of new features. The programming interface for the legacy version
of the runtime is described in Objective-C 1 Runtime Reference ; the programming interface for the modern
version of the runtime is described in Objective-C Runtime Reference .

The most notable new feature is that instance variables in the modern runtime are “non-fragile”:
● In the legacy runtime, if you change the layout of instance variables in a class, you must recompile classes
that inherit from it.
● In the modern runtime, if you change the layout of instance variables in a class, you do not have to
recompile classes that inherit from it.

In addition, the modern runtime supports instance variable synthesis for declared properties (see Declared
Properties in The Objective-C Programming Language ).

Platforms
iPhone applications and 64-bit programs on OS X v10.5 and later use the modern version of the runtime.

Other programs (32-bit programs on OS X desktop) use the legacy version of the runtime.

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Interacting with the Runtime

Objective-C programs interact with the runtime system at three distinct levels: through Objective-C source
code; through methods defined in the NSObject class of the Foundation framework; and through direct calls
to runtime functions.

Objective-C Source Code

For the most part, the runtime system works automatically and behind the scenes. You use it just by writing
and compiling Objective-C source code.

When you compile code containing Objective-C classes and methods, the compiler creates the data structures
and function calls that implement the dynamic characteristics of the language. The data structures capture
information found in class and category definitions and in protocol declarations; they include the class and
protocol objects discussed in Defining a Class and Protocols in The Objective-C Programming Language , as
well as method selectors, instance variable templates, and other information distilled from source code. The
principal runtime function is the one that sends messages, as described in Messaging (page 10). It’s invoked
by source-code message expressions.

NSObject Methods
Most objects in Cocoa are subclasses of the NSObject class, so most objects inherit the methods it defines.
(The notable exception is the NSProxy class; see Message Forwarding (page 18) for more information.) Its
methods therefore establish behaviors that are inherent to every instance and every class object. However, in
a few cases, the NSObject class merely defines a template for how something should be done; it doesn’t
provide all the necessary code itself.

For example, the NSObject class defines a description instance method that returns a string describing
the contents of the class. This is primarily used for debugging—the GDB print-object command prints the
string returned from this method. NSObject’s implementation of this method doesn’t know what the class
contains, so it returns a string with the name and address of the object. Subclasses of NSObject can implement
this method to return more details. For example, the Foundation class NSArray returns a list of descriptions
of the objects it contains.

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Interacting with the Runtime
Runtime Functions

Some of the NSObject methods simply query the runtime system for information. These methods allow objects
to perform introspection. Examples of such methods are the class method, which asks an object to identify
its class; isKindOfClass: and isMemberOfClass:, which test an object’s position in the inheritance
hierarchy; respondsToSelector:, which indicates whether an object can accept a particular message;
conformsToProtocol:, which indicates whether an object claims to implement the methods defined in a
specific protocol; and methodForSelector:, which provides the address of a method’s implementation.
Methods like these give an object the ability to introspect about itself.

Runtime Functions
The runtime system is a dynamic shared library with a public interface consisting of a set of functions and data
structures in the header files located within the directory /usr/include/objc. Many of these functions allow
you to use plain C to replicate what the compiler does when you write Objective-C code. Others form the basis
for functionality exported through the methods of the NSObject class. These functions make it possible to
develop other interfaces to the runtime system and produce tools that augment the development environment;
they’re not needed when programming in Objective-C. However, a few of the runtime functions might on
occasion be useful when writing an Objective-C program. All of these functions are documented in Objective-C
Runtime Reference .

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Messaging

This chapter describes how the message expressions are converted into objc_msgSend function calls, and
how you can refer to methods by name. It then explains how you can take advantage of objc_msgSend, and
how—if you need to—you can circumvent dynamic binding.

The objc_msgSend Function

In Objective-C, messages aren’t bound to method implementations until runtime. The compiler converts a
message expression,

[receiver message]

into a call on a messaging function, objc_msgSend. This function takes the receiver and the name of the
method mentioned in the message—that is, the method selector—as its two principal parameters:

objc_msgSend(receiver, selector)

Any arguments passed in the message are also handed to objc_msgSend:

objc_msgSend(receiver, selector, arg1, arg2, ...)

The messaging function does everything necessary for dynamic binding:

● It first finds the procedure (method implementation) that the selector refers to. Since the same method
can be implemented differently by separate classes, the precise procedure that it finds depends on the
class of the receiver.
● It then calls the procedure, passing it the receiving object (a pointer to its data), along with any arguments
that were specified for the method.
● Finally, it passes on the return value of the procedure as its own return value.

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Messaging
The objc_msgSend Function

Note: The compiler generates calls to the messaging function. You should never call it directly in
the code you write.

The key to messaging lies in the structures that the compiler builds for each class and object. Every class
structure includes these two essential elements:
● A pointer to the superclass.
● A class dispatch table. This table has entries that associate method selectors with the class-specific
addresses of the methods they identify. The selector for the setOrigin:: method is associated with the
address of (the procedure that implements) setOrigin::, the selector for the display method is
associated with display’s address, and so on.

When a new object is created, memory for it is allocated, and its instance variables are initialized. First among
the object’s variables is a pointer to its class structure. This pointer, called isa, gives the object access to its
class and, through the class, to all the classes it inherits from.

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Messaging
The objc_msgSend Function

Note: While not strictly a part of the language, the isa pointer is required for an object to work
with the Objective-C runtime system. An object needs to be “equivalent” to a struct objc_object
(defined in objc/objc.h) in whatever fields the structure defines. However, you rarely, if ever, need
to create your own root object, and objects that inherit from NSObject or NSProxy automatically
have the isa variable.

These elements of class and object structure are illustrated in Figure 3-1.

Figure 3-1 Messaging Framework

superclass

The root class (NSObject) selector...address

selector...address
selector...address
. . .

superclass

The object’s superclass selector...address

selector...address
selector...address
. . .

superclass

The object’s class selector...address

selector...address
selector...address
. . .

isa
instance variable
instance variable
. . .

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Messaging
Using Hidden Arguments

When a message is sent to an object, the messaging function follows the object’s isa pointer to the class
structure where it looks up the method selector in the dispatch table. If it can’t find the selector there,
objc_msgSend follows the pointer to the superclass and tries to find the selector in its dispatch table. Successive
failures cause objc_msgSend to climb the class hierarchy until it reaches the NSObject class. Once it locates
the selector, the function calls the method entered in the table and passes it the receiving object’s data structure.

This is the way that method implementations are chosen at runtime—or, in the jargon of object-oriented
programming, that methods are dynamically bound to messages.

To speed the messaging process, the runtime system caches the selectors and addresses of methods as they
are used. There’s a separate cache for each class, and it can contain selectors for inherited methods as well as
for methods defined in the class. Before searching the dispatch tables, the messaging routine first checks the
cache of the receiving object’s class (on the theory that a method that was used once may likely be used again).
If the method selector is in the cache, messaging is only slightly slower than a function call. Once a program
has been running long enough to “warm up” its caches, almost all the messages it sends find a cached method.
Caches grow dynamically to accommodate new messages as the program runs.

Using Hidden Arguments

When objc_msgSend finds the procedure that implements a method, it calls the procedure and passes it all
the arguments in the message. It also passes the procedure two hidden arguments:
● The receiving object
● The selector for the method

These arguments give every method implementation explicit information about the two halves of the message
expression that invoked it. They’re said to be “hidden” because they aren’t declared in the source code that
defines the method. They’re inserted into the implementation when the code is compiled.

Although these arguments aren’t explicitly declared, source code can still refer to them (just as it can refer to
the receiving object’s instance variables). A method refers to the receiving object as self, and to its own
selector as _cmd. In the example below, _cmd refers to the selector for the strange method and self to the
object that receives a strange message.

- strange

id target = getTheReceiver();

SEL method = getTheMethod();

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Messaging
Getting a Method Address

if ( target == self || method == _cmd )

return nil;

return [target performSelector:method];

self is the more useful of the two arguments. It is, in fact, the way the receiving object’s instance variables
are made available to the method definition.

Getting a Method Address

The only way to circumvent dynamic binding is to get the address of a method and call it directly as if it were
a function. This might be appropriate on the rare occasions when a particular method will be performed many
times in succession and you want to avoid the overhead of messaging each time the method is performed.

With a method defined in the NSObject class, methodForSelector:, you can ask for a pointer to the
procedure that implements a method, then use the pointer to call the procedure. The pointer that
methodForSelector: returns must be carefully cast to the proper function type. Both return and argument
types should be included in the cast.

The example below shows how the procedure that implements the setFilled: method might be called:

void (*setter)(id, SEL, BOOL);

int i;

setter = (void (*)(id, SEL, BOOL))[target

methodForSelector:@selector(setFilled:)];
for ( i = 0 ; i < 1000 ; i++ )

setter(targetList[i], @selector(setFilled:), YES);

The first two arguments passed to the procedure are the receiving object (self) and the method selector
(_cmd). These arguments are hidden in method syntax but must be made explicit when the method is called
as a function.

Using methodForSelector: to circumvent dynamic binding saves most of the time required by messaging.
However, the savings will be significant only where a particular message is repeated many times, as in the for
loop shown above.

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Messaging
Getting a Method Address

Note that methodForSelector: is provided by the Cocoa runtime system; it’s not a feature of the Objective-C
language itself.

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Dynamic Method Resolution

This chapter describes how you can provide an implementation of a method dynamically.

Dynamic Method Resolution

There are situations where you might want to provide an implementation of a method dynamically. For example,
the Objective-C declared properties feature (see Declared Properties in The Objective-C Programming Language )
includes the @dynamic directive:

@dynamic propertyName;

which tells the compiler that the methods associated with the property will be provided dynamically.

You can implement the methods resolveInstanceMethod: and resolveClassMethod: to dynamically

provide an implementation for a given selector for an instance and class method respectively.

An Objective-C method is simply a C function that take at least two arguments—self and _cmd. You can add
a function to a class as a method using the function class_addMethod. Therefore, given the following function:

void dynamicMethodIMP(id self, SEL _cmd) {

// implementation ....

you can dynamically add it to a class as a method (called resolveThisMethodDynamically) using

resolveInstanceMethod: like this:

@implementation MyClass

+ (BOOL)resolveInstanceMethod:(SEL)aSEL

if (aSEL == @selector(resolveThisMethodDynamically)) {

class_addMethod([self class], aSEL, (IMP) dynamicMethodIMP, "v@:");

return YES;

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Dynamic Method Resolution
Dynamic Loading

return [super resolveInstanceMethod:aSEL];

@end

Forwarding methods (as described in Message Forwarding (page 18)) and dynamic method resolution are,
largely, orthogonal. A class has the opportunity to dynamically resolve a method before the forwarding
mechanism kicks in. If respondsToSelector: or instancesRespondToSelector: is invoked, the dynamic
method resolver is given the opportunity to provide an IMP for the selector first. If you implement
resolveInstanceMethod: but want particular selectors to actually be forwarded via the forwarding
mechanism, you return NO for those selectors.

Dynamic Loading
An Objective-C program can load and link new classes and categories while it’s running. The new code is
incorporated into the program and treated identically to classes and categories loaded at the start.

Dynamic loading can be used to do a lot of different things. For example, the various modules in the System
Preferences application are dynamically loaded.

In the Cocoa environment, dynamic loading is commonly used to allow applications to be customized. Others
can write modules that your program loads at runtime—much as Interface Builder loads custom palettes and
the OS X System Preferences application loads custom preference modules. The loadable modules extend
what your application can do. They contribute to it in ways that you permit but could not have anticipated or
defined yourself. You provide the framework, but others provide the code.

Although there is a runtime function that performs dynamic loading of Objective-C modules in Mach-O files
(objc_loadModules, defined in objc/objc-load.h), Cocoa’s NSBundle class provides a significantly more
convenient interface for dynamic loading—one that’s object-oriented and integrated with related services.
See the NSBundle class specification in the Foundation framework reference for information on the NSBundle
class and its use. See OS X ABI Mach-O File Format Reference for information on Mach-O files.

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Message Forwarding

Sending a message to an object that does not handle that message is an error. However, before announcing
the error, the runtime system gives the receiving object a second chance to handle the message.

Forwarding
If you send a message to an object that does not handle that message, before announcing an error the runtime
sends the object a forwardInvocation: message with an NSInvocation object as its sole argument—the
NSInvocation object encapsulates the original message and the arguments that were passed with it.

You can implement a forwardInvocation: method to give a default response to the message, or to avoid
the error in some other way. As its name implies, forwardInvocation: is commonly used to forward the
message to another object.

To see the scope and intent of forwarding, imagine the following scenarios: Suppose, first, that you’re designing
an object that can respond to a message called negotiate, and you want its response to include the response
of another kind of object. You could accomplish this easily by passing a negotiate message to the other
object somewhere in the body of the negotiate method you implement.

Take this a step further, and suppose that you want your object’s response to a negotiate message to be
exactly the response implemented in another class. One way to accomplish this would be to make your class
inherit the method from the other class. However, it might not be possible to arrange things this way. There
may be good reasons why your class and the class that implements negotiate are in different branches of
the inheritance hierarchy.

Even if your class can’t inherit the negotiate method, you can still “borrow” it by implementing a version of
the method that simply passes the message on to an instance of the other class:

- (id)negotiate

if ( [someOtherObject respondsTo:@selector(negotiate)] )

return [someOtherObject negotiate];

return self;

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Message Forwarding
Forwarding

This way of doing things could get a little cumbersome, especially if there were a number of messages you
wanted your object to pass on to the other object. You’d have to implement one method to cover each method
you wanted to borrow from the other class. Moreover, it would be impossible to handle cases where you didn’t
know, at the time you wrote the code, the full set of messages you might want to forward. That set might
depend on events at runtime, and it might change as new methods and classes are implemented in the future.

The second chance offered by a forwardInvocation: message provides a less ad hoc solution to this
problem, and one that’s dynamic rather than static. It works like this: When an object can’t respond to a message
because it doesn’t have a method matching the selector in the message, the runtime system informs the object
by sending it a forwardInvocation: message. Every object inherits a forwardInvocation: method from
the NSObject class. However, NSObject’s version of the method simply invokes
doesNotRecognizeSelector:. By overriding NSObject’s version and implementing your own, you can
take advantage of the opportunity that the forwardInvocation: message provides to forward messages
to other objects.

To forward a message, all a forwardInvocation: method needs to do is:

● Determine where the message should go, and
● Send it there with its original arguments.

The message can be sent with the invokeWithTarget: method:

- (void)forwardInvocation:(NSInvocation *)anInvocation

if ([someOtherObject respondsToSelector:

[anInvocation selector]])

[anInvocation invokeWithTarget:someOtherObject];

else

[super forwardInvocation:anInvocation];

The return value of the message that’s forwarded is returned to the original sender. All types of return values
can be delivered to the sender, including ids, structures, and double-precision floating-point numbers.

A forwardInvocation: method can act as a distribution center for unrecognized messages, parceling them
out to different receivers. Or it can be a transfer station, sending all messages to the same destination. It can
translate one message into another, or simply “swallow” some messages so there’s no response and no error.
A forwardInvocation: method can also consolidate several messages into a single response. What
forwardInvocation: does is up to the implementor. However, the opportunity it provides for linking objects
in a forwarding chain opens up possibilities for program design.

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Message Forwarding
Forwarding and Multiple Inheritance

Note: The forwardInvocation: method gets to handle messages only if they don’t invoke an
existing method in the nominal receiver. If, for example, you want your object to forward negotiate
messages to another object, it can’t have a negotiate method of its own. If it does, the message
will never reach forwardInvocation:.

For more information on forwarding and invocations, see the NSInvocation class specification in the
Foundation framework reference.

Forwarding and Multiple Inheritance

Forwarding mimics inheritance, and can be used to lend some of the effects of multiple inheritance to
Objective-C programs. As shown in Figure 5-1 (page 20), an object that responds to a message by forwarding
it appears to borrow or “inherit” a method implementation defined in another class.

Figure 5-1 Forwarding

Warrior Diplomat

– forwardInvocation: – negotiate

negotiate isa isa

. . .

. . .

In this illustration, an instance of the Warrior class forwards a negotiate message to an instance of the
Diplomat class. The Warrior will appear to negotiate like a Diplomat. It will seem to respond to the negotiate
message, and for all practical purposes it does respond (although it’s really a Diplomat that’s doing the work).

The object that forwards a message thus “inherits” methods from two branches of the inheritance hierarchy—its
own branch and that of the object that responds to the message. In the example above, it appears as if the
Warrior class inherits from Diplomat as well as its own superclass.

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Message Forwarding
Surrogate Objects

Forwarding provides most of the features that you typically want from multiple inheritance. However, there’s
an important difference between the two: Multiple inheritance combines different capabilities in a single
object. It tends toward large, multifaceted objects. Forwarding, on the other hand, assigns separate
responsibilities to disparate objects. It decomposes problems into smaller objects, but associates those objects
in a way that’s transparent to the message sender.

Surrogate Objects
Forwarding not only mimics multiple inheritance, it also makes it possible to develop lightweight objects that
represent or “cover” more substantial objects. The surrogate stands in for the other object and funnels messages
to it.

The proxy discussed in “Remote Messaging” in The Objective-C Programming Language is such a surrogate. A
proxy takes care of the administrative details of forwarding messages to a remote receiver, making sure
argument values are copied and retrieved across the connection, and so on. But it doesn’t attempt to do much
else; it doesn’t duplicate the functionality of the remote object but simply gives the remote object a local
address, a place where it can receive messages in another application.

Other kinds of surrogate objects are also possible. Suppose, for example, that you have an object that
manipulates a lot of data—perhaps it creates a complicated image or reads the contents of a file on disk.
Setting this object up could be time-consuming, so you prefer to do it lazily—when it’s really needed or when
system resources are temporarily idle. At the same time, you need at least a placeholder for this object in order
for the other objects in the application to function properly.

In this circumstance, you could initially create, not the full-fledged object, but a lightweight surrogate for it.
This object could do some things on its own, such as answer questions about the data, but mostly it would
just hold a place for the larger object and, when the time came, forward messages to it. When the surrogate’s
forwardInvocation: method first receives a message destined for the other object, it would ensure that
the object existed and would create it if it didn’t. All messages for the larger object go through the surrogate,
so, as far as the rest of the program is concerned, the surrogate and the larger object would be the same.

Forwarding and Inheritance

Although forwarding mimics inheritance, the NSObject class never confuses the two. Methods like
respondsToSelector: and isKindOfClass: look only at the inheritance hierarchy, never at the forwarding
chain. If, for example, a Warrior object is asked whether it responds to a negotiate message,

if ( [aWarrior respondsToSelector:@selector(negotiate)] )

...

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Message Forwarding
Forwarding and Inheritance

the answer is NO, even though it can receive negotiate messages without error and respond to them, in a
sense, by forwarding them to a Diplomat. (See Figure 5-1 (page 20).)

In many cases, NO is the right answer. But it may not be. If you use forwarding to set up a surrogate object or
to extend the capabilities of a class, the forwarding mechanism should probably be as transparent as inheritance.
If you want your objects to act as if they truly inherited the behavior of the objects they forward messages to,
you’ll need to re-implement the respondsToSelector: and isKindOfClass: methods to include your
forwarding algorithm:

- (BOOL)respondsToSelector:(SEL)aSelector

if ( [super respondsToSelector:aSelector] )
return YES;

else {

/* Here, test whether the aSelector message can *

* be forwarded to another object and whether that *

* object can respond to it. Return YES if it can. */

return NO;

In addition to respondsToSelector: and isKindOfClass:, the instancesRespondToSelector: method

should also mirror the forwarding algorithm. If protocols are used, the conformsToProtocol: method should
likewise be added to the list. Similarly, if an object forwards any remote messages it receives, it should have a
version of methodSignatureForSelector: that can return accurate descriptions of the methods that
ultimately respond to the forwarded messages; for example, if an object is able to forward a message to its
surrogate, you would implement methodSignatureForSelector: as follows:

- (NSMethodSignature*)methodSignatureForSelector:(SEL)selector

NSMethodSignature* signature = [super methodSignatureForSelector:selector];

if (!signature) {

signature = [surrogate methodSignatureForSelector:selector];

return signature;

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Message Forwarding
Forwarding and Inheritance

You might consider putting the forwarding algorithm somewhere in private code and have all these methods,
forwardInvocation: included, call it.

Note: This is an advanced technique, suitable only for situations where no other solution is possible.
It is not intended as a replacement for inheritance. If you must make use of this technique, make
sure you fully understand the behavior of the class doing the forwarding and the class you’re
forwarding to.

The methods mentioned in this section are described in the NSObject class specification in the Foundation
framework reference. For information on invokeWithTarget:, see the NSInvocation class specification
in the Foundation framework reference.

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Type Encodings

To assist the runtime system, the compiler encodes the return and argument types for each method in a
character string and associates the string with the method selector. The coding scheme it uses is also useful
in other contexts and so is made publicly available with the @encode() compiler directive. When given a type
specification, @encode() returns a string encoding that type. The type can be a basic type such as an int, a
pointer, a tagged structure or union, or a class name—any type, in fact, that can be used as an argument to
the C sizeof() operator.

char *buf1 = @encode(int **);

char *buf2 = @encode(struct key);

char *buf3 = @encode(Rectangle);

The table below lists the type codes. Note that many of them overlap with the codes you use when encoding
an object for purposes of archiving or distribution. However, there are codes listed here that you can’t use
when writing a coder, and there are codes that you may want to use when writing a coder that aren’t generated
by @encode(). (See the NSCoder class specification in the Foundation Framework reference for more
information on encoding objects for archiving or distribution.)

Table 6-1 Objective-C type encodings

Code Meaning

c A char

i An int

s A short

l A long
l is treated as a 32-bit quantity on 64-bit programs.

q A long long

C An unsigned char

I An unsigned int

S An unsigned short

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Type Encodings

Code Meaning

L An unsigned long

Q An unsigned long long

f A float

d A double

B A C++ bool or a C99 _Bool

v A void

* A character string (char *)

@ An object (whether statically typed or typed id)

# A class object (Class)

: A method selector (SEL)

[array type ] An array

{name=type... } A structure

(name =type... ) A union

bnum A bit field of num bits

^type A pointer to type

? An unknown type (among other things, this code is used for function pointers)

Important: Objective-C does not support the long double type. @encode(long double) returns d,
which is the same encoding as for double.

The type code for an array is enclosed within square brackets; the number of elements in the array is specified
immediately after the open bracket, before the array type. For example, an array of 12 pointers to floats
would be encoded as:

[12^f]

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Type Encodings

Structures are specified within braces, and unions within parentheses. The structure tag is listed first, followed
by an equal sign and the codes for the fields of the structure listed in sequence. For example, the structure

typedef struct example {

id anObject;

char *aString;

int anInt;

} Example;

would be encoded like this:

{example=@*i}

The same encoding results whether the defined type name (Example) or the structure tag (example) is passed
to @encode(). The encoding for a structure pointer carries the same amount of information about the structure’s
fields:

^{example=@*i}

However, another level of indirection removes the internal type specification:

^^{example}

Objects are treated like structures. For example, passing the NSObject class name to @encode() yields this
encoding:

{NSObject=#}

The NSObject class declares just one instance variable, isa, of type Class.

Note that although the @encode() directive doesn’t return them, the runtime system uses the additional
encodings listed in Table 6-2 for type qualifiers when they’re used to declare methods in a protocol.

Table 6-2 Objective-C method encodings

Code Meaning

r const

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26
Type Encodings

Code Meaning

n in

N inout

o out

O bycopy

R byref

V oneway

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27
Declared Properties

When the compiler encounters property declarations (see Declared Properties in The Objective-C Programming
Language ), it generates descriptive metadata that is associated with the enclosing class, category or protocol.
You can access this metadata using functions that support looking up a property by name on a class or protocol,
obtaining the type of a property as an @encode string, and copying a list of a property's attributes as an array
of C strings. A list of declared properties is available for each class and protocol.

Property Type and Functions

The Property structure defines an opaque handle to a property descriptor.

typedef struct objc_property *Property;

You can use the functions class_copyPropertyList and protocol_copyPropertyList to retrieve an

array of the properties associated with a class (including loaded categories) and a protocol respectively:

objc_property_t *class_copyPropertyList(Class cls, unsigned int *outCount)

objc_property_t *protocol_copyPropertyList(Protocol *proto, unsigned int *outCount)

For example, given the following class declaration:

@interface Lender : NSObject {

float alone;

@property float alone;

@end

you can get the list of properties using:

id LenderClass = objc_getClass("Lender");

unsigned int outCount;

2009-10-19 | Copyright © 2009 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.

28
Declared Properties
Property Type String

objc_property_t *properties = class_copyPropertyList(LenderClass, &outCount);

You can use the property_getName function to discover the name of a property:

const char *property_getName(objc_property_t property)

You can use the functions class_getProperty and protocol_getProperty to get a reference to a property
with a given name in a class and protocol respectively:

objc_property_t class_getProperty(Class cls, const char *name)

objc_property_t protocol_getProperty(Protocol *proto, const char *name, BOOL

isRequiredProperty, BOOL isInstanceProperty)

You can use the property_getAttributes function to discover the name and the @encode type string of
a property. For details of the encoding type strings, see Type Encodings (page 24); for details of this string,
see Property Type String (page 29) and Property Attribute Description Examples (page 30).

const char *property_getAttributes(objc_property_t property)

Putting these together, you can print a list of all the properties associated with a class using the following
code:

id LenderClass = objc_getClass("Lender");

unsigned int outCount, i;

objc_property_t *properties = class_copyPropertyList(LenderClass, &outCount);

for (i = 0; i < outCount; i++) {

objc_property_t property = properties[i];

fprintf(stdout, "%s %s\n", property_getName(property),

property_getAttributes(property));

Property Type String

You can use the property_getAttributes function to discover the name, the @encode type string of a
property, and other attributes of the property.

2009-10-19 | Copyright © 2009 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.

29
Declared Properties
Property Attribute Description Examples

The string starts with a T followed by the @encode type and a comma, and finishes with a V followed by the
name of the backing instance variable. Between these, the attributes are specified by the following descriptors,
separated by commas:

Table 7-1 Declared property type encodings

Code Meaning

R The property is read-only (readonly).

C The property is a copy of the value last assigned (copy).

& The property is a reference to the value last assigned (retain).

N The property is non-atomic (nonatomic).

G<name> The property defines a custom getter selector name. The name follows the G (for
example, GcustomGetter,).

S<name> The property defines a custom setter selector name. The name follows the S (for
example, ScustomSetter:,).

D The property is dynamic (@dynamic).

W The property is a weak reference (__weak).

P The property is eligible for garbage collection.

t<encoding> Specifies the type using old-style encoding.

For examples, see Property Attribute Description Examples (page 30).

Property Attribute Description Examples

Given these definitions:

enum FooManChu { FOO, MAN, CHU };

struct YorkshireTeaStruct { int pot; char lady; };

typedef struct YorkshireTeaStruct YorkshireTeaStructType;

union MoneyUnion { float alone; double down; };

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30
Declared Properties
Property Attribute Description Examples

the following table shows sample property declarations and the corresponding string returned by
property_getAttributes:

Property declaration Property description

@property char charDefault; Tc,VcharDefault

@property double doubleDefault; Td,VdoubleDefault

@property enum FooManChu enumDefault; Ti,VenumDefault

@property float floatDefault; Tf,VfloatDefault

@property int intDefault; Ti,VintDefault

@property long longDefault; Tl,VlongDefault

@property short shortDefault; Ts,VshortDefault

@property signed signedDefault; Ti,VsignedDefault

@property struct YorkshireTeaStruct T{YorkshireTea-

structDefault; Struct="pot"i"lady"c},Vstruct-
Default

@property YorkshireTeaStructType T{YorkshireTea-

typedefDefault; Struct="pot"i"lady"c},Vtypedef-
Default

@property union MoneyUnion unionDefault; T(Money-

Union="alone"f"down"d),Vunion-
Default

@property unsigned unsignedDefault; TI,VunsignedDefault

@property int (*functionPointerDefault)(char T^?,VfunctionPointerDefault

*);

@property id idDefault; T@,VidDefault

Note: the compiler warns: "no 'assign', 'retain',
or 'copy' attribute is specified - 'assign'
is assumed"

@property int *intPointer; T^i,VintPointer

@property void *voidPointerDefault; T^v,VvoidPointerDefault

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31
Declared Properties
Property Attribute Description Examples

Property declaration Property description

@property int intSynthEquals; Ti,V_intSynthEquals

In the implementation block:
@synthesize intSynthEquals=_intSynthEquals;

@property(getter=intGetFoo, Ti,GintGetFoo,SintSetFoo:
setter=intSetFoo:) int intSetterGetter; ,VintSetterGetter

@property(readonly) int intReadonly; Ti,R,VintReadonly

@property(getter=isIntReadOnlyGetter, Ti,R,GisIntReadOnlyGetter
readonly) int intReadonlyGetter;

@property(readwrite) int intReadwrite; Ti,VintReadwrite

@property(assign) int intAssign; Ti,VintAssign

@property(retain)ididRetain; T@,&,VidRetain

@property(copy)ididCopy; T@,C,VidCopy

@property(nonatomic) int intNonatomic; Ti,VintNonatomic

@property(nonatomic, readonly, copy) id T@,R,C,VidReadonlyCopyNonatomic

idReadonlyCopyNonatomic;

@property(nonatomic, readonly, retain) id T@,R,&,VidReadonlyRetain-

idReadonlyRetainNonatomic; Nonatomic

2009-10-19 | Copyright © 2009 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.

32
Document Revision History

This table describes the changes to Objective-C Runtime Programming Guide .

Date Notes

2009-10-19 Made minor editorial changes.

2009-07-14 Completed list of types described by property_getAttributes.

2009-02-04 Corrected typographical errors.

2008-11-19 New document that describes the Objective-C 2.0 runtime support library.

2009-10-19 | Copyright © 2009 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.

33
Apple Inc.
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