question about objective C memory allocation

Hi,

I'm a newcomer to Objective C and Cocoa (C++ background mainly). I found the following code (simplified) in a method of an objective C class:

-(void) methodName
{

}

.... so it looks like you can dynamically allocate an array of length size like this (which you can't do in C++). Is this the case or am I missing something? If it is the case, what is the appropriate way to deallocate the memory? Something like:

delete [] arrayOfInts;

?

Thanks.

Haven't yet started to teach myself objective C (have just read a tiny wee bit), but i think its

Thanks for the reply but I'm not so sure:

Using

[dealloc arrayOfInts]

gave a compiler error: 'dealloc not declared in this scope' which makes sense, since this syntax is for passing a message (in this case 'arrayOfInts') to an object (here dealloc). I also tried

[arrayOfInts dealloc]

which gives the warning 'invalid receiver type 'int [1]''. This also makes a certain amount of sense, since arrayOfInts is not an object.

That looks like standard C to me, which means C++ should have the same ability if you choose to code it that way.

A quick test says, yes, in your case scenario you can dynamically allocate the size of that array. I think it may be because you are within an function. This wikipedia entry suggests it is freed automatically after exiting the function. See the RAII entry and read the first paragraph below the samples.

For more on this you might want to check out this link.

To get started in Objective-C, Cocoa Dev Central has some nice tutorials. Also set up a free Apple Developer membership so you can see further writings there.