Create objective-c class instance by name?

Question

Is it possible to create an instance of a class by name? Something like:

NSString* className = @"Car"; id* p = [Magic createClassByName:className]; [p turnOnEngine]; 

I don't know if this is possible in objective-c but seems like it would be,

Answer 1

id object = [[NSClassFromString(@"NameofClass") alloc] init]; 

Answer 2

NSClassFromString() runs the risk of mistyping the class name or otherwise using a class that doesn't exist. You won't find out until runtime if you make that error. Instead, if you use the built-in objective-c type of Class to create a variable, then the compiler will verify that the class exists.

For example, in your .h:

@property Class NameOfClass; 

and then in your .m:

id object = [[NameOfClass alloc] init]; 

If you mistyped the class name or if it doesn't exist, you'll get an error at compile time. Also I think this is cleaner code.