NSLog on the device, is that a problem or must i remove that?

Question

I have read this post: what happens to NSLog info when running on a device?

...but wondering if NSLog is a problem when distributing the app such as filling up the memory or something? I am only interested to see it when i test the consistency of my input data to the database.

The reason is that I have NSLog to control when i load the data into my database in the simulator. I could remove it when i upload but it would be good if i do not need to?

Answer 1

You should remove it. For example if you log contents of a UITableViewCell (in -tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath:), it can make a big difference in performance, especially on slower hardware.

Use a macro to keep NSLog output in Debug mode, but remove it from Release mode. An example can be found on the following site: http://iphoneincubator.com/blog/debugging/the-evolution-of-a-replacement-for-nslog

Answer 2

I use a set of macros in my pch file that are quite handy for this.

See http://www.cimgf.com/2010/05/02/my-current-prefix-pch-file/ for details.

#ifdef DEBUG
  #define DLog(...) NSLog(@"%s %@", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, [NSString stringWithFormat:__VA_ARGS__])
  #define ALog(...) [[NSAssertionHandler currentHandler] handleFailureInFunction:[NSString stringWithCString:__PRETTY_FUNCTION__ encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] file:[NSString stringWithCString:__FILE__ encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] lineNumber:__LINE__ description:__VA_ARGS__]
#else
  #define DLog(...) do { } while (0)
  #ifndef NS_BLOCK_ASSERTIONS
    #define NS_BLOCK_ASSERTIONS
  #endif
  #define ALog(...) NSLog(@"%s %@", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, [NSString stringWithFormat:__VA_ARGS__])
#endif

#define ZAssert(condition, ...) do { if (!(condition)) { ALog(__VA_ARGS__); }} while(0)