Does Objective-C support Generics?
You can use the introspection tools offered by the objective-c runtime.
Basically, it means you can check if all objects in an array either are a kind of class (Class A or one subclass of it) or a member of class (class A), or if a objects conforms to a protocol or responds to a selector (a certain method is present).
-(void) sort: (NSMutableArray *) deck {
for(id obj in deck){
if(obj isKindOfClass:[A class]]){
//this is of right class
}
}
}
You could write a Category method on NSArray
that checkouts this on every object.
BOOL allAreKindOfA = [array allObjectsAreKindOfClass:[A class]];
Normally you actually don't need this very often, as you know what you put inside a collection.
If you need to check the type or ability of an object in a Array, this might be an indicator, that your Architecture is broken
Another option could be a subclass of NSMutableArray
that only accepts certain classes. But be aware of the subclassing notes for NSMutableArray and NSArray, as these are Class-Clusters and therefore not easy to subclass.
Note: In my other answer I created a NSMutableArray
subclass, that uses a block to test, if a certain requirement is fulfilled. If you test against class-membership, this will do exactly what you want. Use the second block for error handling.
Objective-C supports lightweight Generics since 2015, with the Xcode 7.
The Xcode 7 compiler will give you the compiler warning if there is a type mismatch.
For example, the following line will raise a compiler warning as the second object in the array causes type mismatch. The array allows only NSString
objects.
NSArray <NSString *> *myArray = [@"str2", @1, @"str2"];