For loop in Objective-C

Question

Where should I use the for loop and where should I use the for in loop?

I would like to know the difference between them.

Answer 1

The traditional for loop in Objective-C is inherited from standard C and takes the following form:

for (/* Instantiate local variables*/ ; /* Condition to keep looping. */ ; /* End of loop expressions */)
{
    // Do something.
}

For example, to print the numbers from 1 to 10, you could use the for loop:

for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
{
    NSLog(@"%d", i);
}

On the other hand, the for in loop was introduced in Objective-C 2.0, and is used to loop through objects in a collection, such as an NSArray instance. For example, to loop through a collection of NSString objects in an NSArray and print them all out, you could use the following format.

for (NSString* currentString in myArrayOfStrings)
{
    NSLog(@"%@", currentString);
}

This is logically equivilant to the following traditional for loop:

for (int i = 0; i < [myArrayOfStrings count]; i++)
{
    NSLog(@"%@", [myArrayOfStrings objectAtIndex:i]);
}

The advantage of using the for in loop is firstly that it's a lot cleaner code to look at. Secondly, the Objective-C compiler can optimize the for in loop so as the code runs faster than doing the same thing with a traditional for loop.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You mean fast enumeration? You question is very unclear.

A normal for loop would look a bit like this:

unsigned int i, cnt = [someArray count];
for(i = 0; i < cnt; i++)
{ 
   // do loop stuff
   id someObject = [someArray objectAtIndex:i];
}

And a loop with fast enumeration, which is optimized by the compiler, would look like this:

for(id someObject in someArray)
{
   // do stuff with object
}

Keep in mind that you cannot change the array you are using in fast enumeration, thus no deleting nor adding when using fast enumeration