does addSubview increment retain count?

Question

I've tested it and it looks like it does. So my question is, does it ALWAYS increment the retain count.

So everytime I do something like this:

UIView *theView = [[[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:(CGRect)aFrame] autorelease];
[self.view addSubview:theView];

Am I actually leaking memory?

I have a global property @property (nonatomic, retain) UILabel *ingredientsTextLabel; which I instantiate in viewDidLoad with this code:

I just have the property named, theres no property for it in my header, so no getter and setter. In my viewDidLoad:

    ingredientsTextLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, ingredientsScrollView.frame.size.width, ingredientsScrollView.frame.size.height)];
    [ingredientsTextLabel setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
    [ingredientsTextLabel setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica" size:18]];
    [ingredientsTextLabel setText:ingredientsText];
    [ingredientsTextLabel setNumberOfLines:0];
    [ingredientsTextLabel setLineBreakMode:UILineBreakModeWordWrap];
    NSLog(@"%i",[ingredientsTextLabel retainCount]); // here retain count is 1

    CGSize maxSize = CGSizeMake(ingredientsScrollView.frame.size.width, 9999);
    CGSize ingLabSize = [ingredientsText sizeWithFont:ingredientsTextLabel.font
                                    constrainedToSize:maxSize
                                        lineBreakMode:ingredientsTextLabel.lineBreakMode];

    [ingredientsTextLabel setFrame:CGRectMake(ingredientsTextLabel.frame.origin.x, ingredientsTextLabel.frame.origin.x, ingredientsTextLabel.frame.size.width, ingLabSize.height)];
    [ingredientsScrollView addSubview:ingredientsTextLabel];
    NSLog(@"%i",[ingredientsTextLabel retainCount]); // here retain count is 2!

Now I thought this would work and then in dealloc I can release ingredientsTextLabel, but the retain count is 2, so do I need to also release i after I addSubview as well? I didn't realise this happens! :(

Answer 1

Yes, "addSubview" increases the retain count. This makes sense because the method stores the subview which should not be released/freed until the superview is also released. When the superview is release it also releases all its subviews.

Answer 2

Do not use -retainCount.

The absolute retain count of an object is meaningless.

You should call release exactly same number of times that you caused the object to be retained. No less (unless you like leaks) and, certainly, no more (unless you like crashes).

See the Memory Management Guidelines for full details.

If you +new/+alloc/-retain/-copy (NARC) an object, you need to balance the retain with a release (or autoerelease). End of story. The absolute retain count, especially the absolute retain count of an instance of a class that is subclassed from a framework class and/or passed into framework code, is an implementation detail and quite likely to not be what you think it should be.