Objective-c – How to use performSelector:withObject:afterDelay: with primitive types in Cocoa

cocoaobjective c

The NSObject method performSelector:withObject:afterDelay: allows me to invoke a method on the object with an object argument after a certain time. It cannot be used for methods with a non-object argument (e.g. ints, floats, structs, non-object pointers, etc.).

What is the simplest way to achieve the same thing with a method with a non-object argument? I know that for regular performSelector:withObject:, the solution is to use NSInvocation (which by the way is really complicated). But I don't know how to handle the "delay" part.

Thanks,

Best Answer

Here is what I used to call something I couldn't change using NSInvocation:

SEL theSelector = NSSelectorFromString(@"setOrientation:animated:");
NSInvocation *anInvocation = [NSInvocation
            invocationWithMethodSignature:
            [MPMoviePlayerController instanceMethodSignatureForSelector:theSelector]];

[anInvocation setSelector:theSelector];
[anInvocation setTarget:theMovie];
UIInterfaceOrientation val = UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait;
BOOL anim = NO;
[anInvocation setArgument:&val atIndex:2];
[anInvocation setArgument:&anim atIndex:3];

[anInvocation performSelector:@selector(invoke) withObject:nil afterDelay:1];

Compare method

Either you implement a compare-method for your object:

- (NSComparisonResult)compare:(Person *)otherObject {
    return [self.birthDate compare:otherObject.birthDate];
}

NSArray *sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)];

NSSortDescriptor (better)

or usually even better:

NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor;
sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"birthDate"
                                           ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:@[sortDescriptor]];

You can easily sort by multiple keys by adding more than one to the array. Using custom comparator-methods is possible as well. Have a look at the documentation.

Blocks (shiny!)

There's also the possibility of sorting with a block since Mac OS X 10.6 and iOS 4:

NSArray *sortedArray;
sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingComparator:^NSComparisonResult(Person *a, Person *b) {
    return [a.birthDate compare:b.birthDate];
}];

Performance

The -compare: and block-based methods will be quite a bit faster, in general, than using NSSortDescriptor as the latter relies on KVC. The primary advantage of the NSSortDescriptor method is that it provides a way to define your sort order using data, rather than code, which makes it easy to e.g. set things up so users can sort an NSTableView by clicking on the header row.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Objective-c – How to print out a stack trace to the console/log in Cocoa

Ios – How to sort an NSMutableArray with custom objects in it

Compare method

NSSortDescriptor (better)

Blocks (shiny!)

Performance

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