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Re: Is @"constantstring" pointer equal to @"constantstring" aguarantee?
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Re: Is @"constantstring" pointer equal to @"constantstring" aguarantee?


  • Subject: Re: Is @"constantstring" pointer equal to @"constantstring" aguarantee?
  • From: Chris Hanson <email@hidden>
  • Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:36:41 -0700

On Mar 27, 2008, at 8:39 PM, Jens Alfke wrote:
@"" strings are actually instances of an immutable private NSString
subclass.  I think it's called _NSConstantString or some such.

Yup. And they're not allocated on the heap; they're stored in the executable itself, although their memory layout is that of a "real" Obj-C object. The compiler tags them in such a way that the linker will coalesce identical ones into a single value.

It's slightly more complicated than that -- there's also GCC's "-fno- constant-cfstrings" option, which will cause at least CFSTR() constants (I'm not sure whether it also covers @"" constants) to be created dynamically rather than statically.


This is important for developers of bundles which may be unloaded, because a pointer to a constant string in an executable that's will become a dangling pointer if that executable is unloaded.

  -- Chris

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  • Follow-Ups:
    • Re: Is @"constantstring" pointer equal to @"constantstring" aguarantee?
      • From: Ken Ferry <email@hidden>
References: 
 >Re: Is @"constantstring" pointer equal to @"constantstring" a guarantee? (From: "Kyle Sluder" <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Is @"constantstring" pointer equal to @"constantstring" aguarantee? (From: "Kyle Sluder" <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Is @"constantstring" pointer equal to @"constantstring" aguarantee? (From: Jens Alfke <email@hidden>)

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