#import using angle brackets < > and quote marks " "

In C, the convention is that header files in <> bracket are searched in 'system' directories and "" in user or local directories.

The definition of system and local is a bit vague, I guess. I believe it looks in system directories in include path or in CPPFLAGS for <header.h>, and local directory or directory specified with -I to compiler are searched for "header.h" files.

I assume it works similarly for Objective-C.


Objective-C has this in common with C/C++; the quoted form is for "local" includes of files (you need to specify the relative path from the current file, e.g. #include "headers/my_header.h"), while the angle-bracket form is for "global" includes -- those found somewhere on the include path passed to the compiler (e.g. #include <math.h>).

So to have your own headers use < > not " " you need to pass either the relative or the absolute path for your header directory to the compiler. See "How to add a global include path for Xcode" for info on how to do that in Xcode.

See this MSDN page for more info.


To import your own classes using "< >" you have to put the header files (*.h) in the lib folder of compiler or set a SYSTEM VARIABLES ponting to your lib folder.