iOS When to release an alloc. textField?

[yrvaken2]

I do not really understand this with memory management. In this case when the TextField is Alloc. Do I have to set an Autorelease on it or will it be enough to have the release in "dealloc"?

Thanks Anders

@implementation EditableCell

@synthesize textField;

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame reuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier {
    if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame reuseIdentifier:reuseIdentifier]) {
        // Set the frame to CGRectZero as it will be reset in layoutSubviews
        textField = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
        textField.contentVerticalAlignment = UIControlContentVerticalAlignmentCenter;
        textField.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:16.0];
        textField.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
        [self addSubview:textField];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)dealloc {
    // Release allocated resources.
    [textField release];
    [super dealloc];
}

- (void)layoutSubviews {
    // Place the subviews appropriately.
    textField.frame = CGRectInset(self.contentView.bounds, 20, 0);
}

- (void)setSelected:(BOOL)selected animated:(BOOL)animated {
    [super setSelected:selected animated:animated];
    // Update text color so that it matches expected selection behavior.
    if (selected) {
        textField.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    } else {
        textField.textColor = [UIColor darkGrayColor];
    }
}

@end

 

[dejo]

Do you have textField set up as a property in the .h? If so, how?

 

[yrvaken2]

@interface EditableCell : UITableViewCell {
    UITextField *textField;
}	
@property (nonatomic, retain) UITextField *textField;

 

[dejo]

Then you should be fine releasing it in the dealloc.

 

[yrvaken2]

Do you mind explain why?

 

[dejo]

When you alloc the UITextField, you are assigning it immediately to the textfield property, which has a retain directive. Therefore, as long as the class is instantiated, the memory for this property will be retained. When the class gets de-instantiated, the dealloc method will be called and then the memory for the textField will be released (via the [textField release]) since it is no longer necessary to retain it.