Introducing the usage of @dynamic

Introducing the usage of @dynamic

Objective-C 2.0 provides properties (@property), which allows the compiler to automatically generate setter and getter methods. If you don't want the compiler to generate these setter and getter methods on its own, use @dynamic. To give a simple example, as follows

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>  
  
@interface Person : NSObject  
@property (copy) NSString *name;  
@end  
  
@implementation Person  
// @dynamic tells compiler don&#39;t generate setter and getter automatically  
@dynamic name;  
@end  
  
int main(int argc, const charchar * argv[])  
{  
    NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];  
      
    Person *a = [[Person alloc] init];  
      
    a.name = @"Hello"; // will crash here  
    NSLog(@"%@", a.name);  
      
    [a release];  
    [pool drain];  
      
    return 0;  
} // main

When running the program, Xcode will report an error "-[PersonsetName:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x1001149d0". If @dynamic is commented out, everything is OK.

Due to the use of @dynamic here, we need to provide the setter and getter methods ourselves. There are generally two methods: 1) Provide setter and getter methods yourself, and manually rewrite the setter and getter methods automatically generated by the compiler; 2) Dynamic method resolution (DynamicMethod Resolution), provide corresponding implementations of setters and getters at runtime. C function.

For the first method, the instance variables need to be provided explicitly in the class, because @dynamic cannot provide instance variables to the implementation file (.m) like @synthesize.

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>  
  
@interface Person : NSObject  
{  
    // must provide a ivar for our setter and getter  
    NSString *_name;  
}  
@property (copy) NSString *name;  
@end  
  
@implementation Person  
// @dynamic tells compiler don&#39;t generate setter and getter automatically  
@dynamic name;  
  
// We provide setter and getter here  
- (void) setName:(NSString *)name  
{  
    if (_name != name) {  
        [_name release];  
        _name = [name copy];  
    }  
}  
  
- (NSString *) name  
{  
    return _name;  
}  
@end // Person  
  
int main(int argc, const charchar * argv[])  
{  
    NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];  
      
    Person *a = [[Person alloc] init];  
      
    a.name = @"Hello"; // Ok, use our setter  
    a.name = @"Hello, world";  
    NSLog(@"%@", a.name); // Ok, use our getter  
      
    [a release];  
    [pool drain];  
      
    return 0;  
} // main

For the second method, the resolveInstanceMethod: method provided by NSObject is used to determine the C function corresponding to the setter and getter implementation at runtime. Instance variables cannot be used directly in C functions. The ObjC object self needs to be converted into a structure in C. Therefore, the instance variables also need to be explicitly declared in the Person class and the access level is @public. In order to hide the instance variables, put the declaration in In extension

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>  
#import <objc/objc-runtime.h> // for class_addMethod()  
  
// ------------------------------------------------------  
// A .h file  
@interface Person : NSObject  
@property (copy) NSString *name;  
- (void) hello;  
@end  
  
// ------------------------------------------------------  
// A .m file  
// Use extension to override the access level of _name ivar  
@interface Person ()  
{  
@public  
    NSString *_name;  
}  
@end  
  
@implementation Person  
// @dynamic implies compiler to look for setName: and name method in runtime  
@dynamic name;  
  
// Only resolve unrecognized methods, and only load methods dynamically once  
+ (BOOL) resolveInstanceMethod:(SEL)sel  
{  
    // Capture setName: and name method  
    if (sel == @selector(setName:)) {  
        class_addMethod([self class], sel, (IMP)setName, "v@:@");  
        return YES;  
    }  
    else if (sel == @selector(name)) {  
        class_addMethod([self class], sel, (IMP)getName, "@@:");  
        return YES;  
    }  
      
    return [super resolveInstanceMethod:sel];  
}  
  
void setName(id self, SEL _cmd, NSString* name)  
{  
    // Implement @property (copy)  
    if (((Person *)self)->_name != name) {  
        [((Person *)self)->_name release];  
        ((Person *)self)->_name = [name copy];  
    }  
}  
  
NSString* getName(id self, SEL _cmd)  
{  
    return ((Person *)self)->_name;  
}  
  
- (void) hello  
{  
    NSLog(@"Hello, world");  
}  
  
@end // Person  
  
int main(int argc, const charchar * argv[])  
{  
    NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];  
      
    Person *a = [[Person alloc] init];  
    [a hello]; // never call resolveInstanceMethod  
      
    a.name = @"hello1";  
    NSLog(@"%@", a.name);  
    a.name = @"hello2";  
    NSLog(@"%@", a.name);  
      
    [a release];  
    [pool drain];  
      
    return 0;  
} // main

To summarize the above, the function of @dynamic is to prohibit the compiler from generating setter and getter methods for @property. There are two ways to implement setter and getter methods: 1) Provide setter and getter methods yourself; 2) Method dynamic resolution (DynamicMethod Resolution).