insertObject: atIndex: - index 3 beyond bounds for empty array

Question

I create an array based on a dictionaries key's:

factsBuiltArray = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity: 6];
if ([statusDict count] == 10) {
    for (NSString *key in [statusDict allKeys]) {
        if ([key isEqualToString: @"currenciesAndConversions"]) {
            [factsBuiltArray insertObject:key atIndex: 0];
        }
        else if ([key isEqualToString: @"languageAndTranslations"]) {
            [factsBuiltArray insertObject:key atIndex: 1];
        }
        else if ([key isEqualToString: @"plugSize"]) {
            [factsBuiltArray insertObject:key atIndex: 2];
        }
        else  if ([key isEqualToString: @"timezone"]) {
            [factsBuiltArray insertObject:key atIndex: 3]; // crashes over here
        }
        else if ([key isEqualToString: @"population"]) {
            [factsBuiltArray insertObject:key atIndex: 4];
        }
        else if ([key isEqualToString: @"wikipedia"]) {
            [factsBuiltArray insertObject:key atIndex: 5];
        }
    }
}

The crash log is:

*** -[__NSArrayM insertObject:atIndex:]: index 3 beyond bounds for empty array

Why does inserting an object to an array that is specified with a capacity of 6 make it crash? Very confusing!

Answer 1

The capacity is merely how many objects a container class can hold. Inserting at an index requires that index to be a valid placement for the new object based on the total number of objects contained in the container (not the total number of objects that CAN be contained).

If your array's values are index dependent (which is seems like perhaps a different architecture or data structure would be better) then you can ensure that every index is filled by prepopulating the array with NSNulls. This would require you to check for NSNulls when reading from the array later on though which would likely be extra work, hence why this is probably not the best approach. In any case, you can change your code to the following to fix your crash.

factsBuiltArray = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity: 6];

for (NSUInter i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
    [factsBuiltArray addObject:[NSNull null]];
}

if ([statusDict count] == 10) {

    for (NSString *key in [statusDict allKeys]) {

        if ([key isEqualToString: @"currenciesAndConversions"]) {

            [factsBuiltArray replaceObjectAtIndex:0 withObject:key];
        }
        else if ([key isEqualToString: @"languageAndTranslations"]) {

            [factsBuiltArray replaceObjectAtIndex:1 withObject:key];
        }
        else if ([key isEqualToString: @"plugSize"]) {

            [factsBuiltArray replaceObjectAtIndex:2 withObject:key];
        }
        else  if ([key isEqualToString: @"timezone"]) {

        [factsBuiltArray replaceObjectAtIndex:3 withObject:key];

        }
        else if ([key isEqualToString: @"population"]) {

            [factsBuiltArray replaceObjectAtIndex:4 withObject:key];
        }
        else if ([key isEqualToString: @"wikipedia"]) {

            [factsBuiltArray replaceObjectAtIndex:5 withObject:key];
        }
    }
}