How to tell if blocks in loop all have completed executing?

Question

I have a loop set up that downloads a series a images which I will later use for to animate using the animationImages property of UIImageView. I would like to know when all the blocks inside my loops have finished executing so I could begin the animation, and was wondering how I may be able to tell when they are finished completing? Thanks!

for (PFObject *pictureObject in objects){

    PFFile *imageFile = [pictureObject objectForKey:@"image"];
    NSURL *imageFileURL = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:imageFile.url];
    NSURLRequest *imageRequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:imageFileURL];

    [tokenImageView setImageWithURLRequest:imageRequest placeholderImage:nil success:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, UIImage *image) {
       [self.downloadedUIImages addObject:image]; //This is a mutableArray that will later be set to an UIImageView's animnationImages

    } failure:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
        NSLog(@"Error %@", error);
    }];

}
//When I know all the blocks have finished downloading, I will then to animate the downloaded images. 

Edit: having issue with Error -999

I am encountering the following issue when executing the code in the provided answer: Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-999 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -999.)"

A quick search reveals that Error -999 means "another request is made before the previous request is completed" ... which is certainly the case here since I am making several requests in quick succession. The recommended fix suggested here didn't work for me as it will only successfully download one UIImage (the last one requested) , with the previous ones failing. I was wondering if there is workaround here or in AFNetworking that I ought to consider? Thanks!

Edit 2: working code based on @David's solution

for (PFObject *pictureObject in objects){

    PFFile *imageFile = [pictureObject objectForKey:@"image"];
    NSURL *imageFileURL = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:imageFile.url];
    NSURLRequest *imageRequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:imageFileURL];
    AFHTTPRequestOperation *requestOperation = [[AFHTTPRequestOperation alloc] initWithRequest:imageRequest];
    requestOperation.responseSerializer = [AFImageResponseSerializer serializer];

    dispatch_group_enter(group);
    [requestOperation setCompletionBlockWithSuccess:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
        NSLog(@"Response: %@", responseObject);
        UIImage *retrivedImage = (UIImage *)responseObject;
        [self.downloadedUIImages addObject:retrivedImage];

        dispatch_group_leave(group);

    } failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
        NSLog(@"Image error: %@", error);

        dispatch_group_leave(group);
    }];

    [requestOperation start];
    counter ++;
}

dispatch_group_notify(group, dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
    NSLog(@"Horray everything has completed");
    NSLog(@"What is here %@", self.downloadedUIImages);
    NSLog(@"Done");

});

Answer 1

Create a dispatch group, in the for loop enter the group, in the completion block leave the group. Then you can use dispatch_group_notify to find out when all blocks have completed:

dispatch_group_t    group = dispatch_group_create();

for (PFObject *pictureObject in objects){

    PFFile *imageFile = [pictureObject objectForKey:@"image"];
    NSURL *imageFileURL = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:imageFile.url];
    NSURLRequest *imageRequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:imageFileURL];

    dispatch_group_enter(group);
    [tokenImageView setImageWithURLRequest:imageRequest placeholderImage:nil success:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, UIImage *image) {
        [self.downloadedUIImages addObject:image]; //This is a mutableArray that will later be set to an UIImageView's animnationImages
        dispatch_group_leave(group);
    } failure:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
        NSLog(@"Error %@", error);
        dispatch_group_leave(group);
    }];

}

dispatch_group_notify(group, dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
    // do your completion stuff here
});

Answer 2

Count how many you've completed. The challenging part is making it thread safe. I recommend creating an atomic counter class for that.

Generic solution!

+ (void)runBlocksInParallel:(NSArray *)blocks completion:(CompletionBlock)completion {
    AtomicCounter *completionCounter = [[AtomicCounter alloc] initWithValue:blocks.count];
    for (AsyncBlock block in blocks) {
        block(^{
            if ([completionCounter decrementAndGet] == 0) {
                if (completion) completion();
            }
        });
    }
    if (blocks.count == 0) {
        if (completion) completion();
    }
}

---

NSMutableArray *asyncBlocks = [NSMutableArray array];
for (PFObject *pictureObject in objects){
    [asyncBlocks addObject:^(CompletionBlock completion) {
        PFFile *imageFile = [pictureObject objectForKey:@"image"];
        NSURL *imageFileURL = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:imageFile.url];
        NSURLRequest *imageRequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:imageFileURL];

        [tokenImageView setImageWithURLRequest:imageRequest placeholderImage:nil success:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, UIImage *image) {
           [self.downloadedUIImages addObject:image]; //This is a mutableArray that will later be set to an UIImageView's animnationImages
        } failure:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
            NSLog(@"Error %@", error);
        } completion:completion];
    }];
}
[BlockRunner runBlocksInParallel:[asyncBlocks copy] completion:^{
    //Do your final completion here!
}];