Objective-C 2.0 Essentials

The Objective-C 2.0 Essentials online book contains 34 chapters of detailed information intended to provide everything necessary to gain proficiency as an Objective-C programmer for both Mac OS X and iPhone development.

Table of Contents

About Objective-C Essentials Why are you reading this? Supported Platforms The History of Objective-C The C Programming Language The Smalltalk programming Language C meets Smalltalk Objective-C and Apple Installing Xcode and Compiling Objective-C on Mac OS X Installing Xcode on Mac OS X Starting Xcode Starting a New Project Writing an Objective-C Application with Xcode Compiling Objective-C from the Command Line Installing and using GNUstep and Objective-C on Windows Downloading the GNUstep Packages Installing MinGW and GNUstep on Windows Running the GNUstep Shell Testing the Installation Installing and Using GNUstep and Objective-C on Linux Installing GNUstep on Ubuntu Compiling Objective-C Code Building and Installing GNUstep on Linux Installing gcc and Objective-C Support on Linux Package Dependencies Obtaining the GNUstep Source Code Configuring the Build Process Building GNUstep Testing the Objective-C and GNUstep Installation Compiling Objective-C Code Objective-C 2.0 Data Types int Data Type char Data Type Special Characters/Escape Sequences float Data Type double Data Type id Data Type BOOL Data Type Objective-C Data Type Qualifiers long long long short signed / unsigned Working with Variables and Constants in Objective-C What is an Objective-C Variable What is an Objective-C Constant? Type Casting Objective-C Variables Objective-C Operators and Expressions What is an Expression? The Basic Assignment Operator Objective-C Arithmetic Operators Compound Assignment Operators Increment and Decrement Operators Comparison Operators Boolean Logical Operators The Ternary Operator Bitwise Operators Bitwise AND Bitwise OR Bitwise XOR Bitwise Left Shift Bitwise Right Shift Compound Bitwise Operators Objective-C 2.0 Operator Precedence An Example of Objective-C Operator Precedence Objective-C Operator Precedence and Associativity Overriding Operator Precedence Commenting Objective-C Code Why Comment your Code? Single Line Comments Multi-line Comments Objective-C Flow Control with if and else Using the if Statement Using if … else .. Statements Using if … else if .. Statements Summary The Objective-C switch Statement Why Use a switch Statement? Using the switch Statement Syntax A switch Statement Example Explaining the Example Combining case Statements Objective-C Looping – The for Statement Why Use Loops? Objective-C Loop Variable Scope Creating an Infinite for Loop Breaking Out of a for Loop Nested for Loops Breaking from Nested Loops Continuing for Loops Using for Loops with Multiple Variables Objective-C Looping with do and while Statements The Objective-C while Loop Objective-C do … while loops Breaking from Loops The continue Statement An Overview of Objective-C Object Oriented Programming What is an Object? What is a Class? Declaring an Objective-C Class Implementation Adding Instance Variables to a Class Define Class Methods Declaring an Objective-C Class Implementation Declaring, Initializing and Releasing a Class Instance Calling Methods and Accessing Instance Data Creating the Program Section Bringing it all Together Structuring Object-Oriented Objective-C Code Writing Objective-C Class Methods Instance and Class Methods Creating a New Class Method The @interface Section The @implementation Section The main() Function Objective-C – Data Encapsulation, Synthesized Accessors and Dot Notation Data Encapsulation Synthesized Accessor Methods Direct Access to Encapsulated Data Objective-C and Dot Notation Controlling Access to Instance Variables Objective-C Inheritance Inheritance, Classes and Subclasses An Objective-C Inheritance Example Extending the Functionality of a Subclass Overriding Inherited Methods Pointers and Indirection in Objective-C How Variables are Stored An Overview of Indirection Indirection and Objects Indirection and Object Copying Objective-C Dynamic Binding and Typing with the id Type Static Typing vs Dynamic Typing Dynamic Binding Polymorphism Objective-C Variable Scope and Storage Class Variable Scope Block Scope Function Scope Global Scope File Scope Variable Storage Class An Overview of Objective-C Functions What is a Function? How to Declare an Objective-C Function Calling an Objective-C Function Function Prototypes Function Scope and the static Specifier Static Variables in Functions Objective-C Enumerators Why Use Enumerators Declaring an Enumeration Creating and Using an Enumeration Enumerators and Variable Names An Overview of the Objective-C Foundation Framework The Foundation Framework Including the Foundation Headers Finding the Foundation Framework Documentation Working with String Objects in Objective-C Strings without NSString Declaring Constant String Objects Creating Mutable and Immutable String Objects Getting the Length of a String Copying a String Searching for a Substring Replacing Parts of a String String Search and Replace Deleting Sections of a String Extracting a Subsection of a String Inserting Text into a String Appending Text to the End of a String Comparing Strings Checking for String Prefixes and Suffixes Converting to Upper or Lower Case Converting Strings to Numbers Converting a String Object to ASCII Understanding Objective-C Number Objects Creating and Initializing NSNumber Objects Getting the Value of a Number Object Comparing Number Objects Getting the Number Object Value as a String Working with Objective-C Array Objects Mutable and Immutable Arrays Creating an Array Object Finding out the Number of Elements in an Array Accessing the Elements of an Array object Accessing Array Elements using Fast Enumeration Adding Elements to an Array Object Inserting Elements into an Array Deleting Elements from an Array Object Sorting Array Objects Objective-C Dictionary Objects What are Dictionary Objects? Creating Dictionary Objects Initializing and Adding Entries to a Dictionary Object Getting an Entry Count Accessing Dictionary Entries Removing Entries from a Dictionary Object Working with Directories in Objective-C The Objective-C NSFileManager, NSFileHandle and NSData Classes Understanding Pathnames in Objective-C Creating an NSFileManager Instance Object Identifying the Current Working Directory Changing to a Different Directory Creating a New Directory Deleting a Directory Renaming or Moving a Directory Getting a Directory File Listing Getting the Attributes of a File or Directory Working with Files in Objective-C Creating an NSFileManager Instance Checking if a File Exists Comparing the Contents of Two Files Checking if a File is Readable/Writable/Executable/Deletable Moving/Renaming a File Copying a File Removing a File Creating a Symbolic Link Reading and Writing Files with NSFileManager Working with Files using the NSFileHandle Class Creating an NSFileHandle Object NSFileHandle File Offsets and Seeking Reading Data from a File Writing Data to a File Truncating a File Constructing and Manipulating Paths with NSPathUtilities The Anatomy of a Path Finding a Temporary Directory Getting the Current User’s Home Directory Getting the Home Directory of a Specified User Extracting the Filename from a Path Extracting the Filename Extension Standardizing a Path Extracting the Components of a Path Copying Objects in Objective-C Objects and Pointers Copying an Object in Objective-C using the <NSCopying> Protocol <NSCopying> Protocol and copyWithZone Method Implementation Performing a Deep Copy Using Objective-C Preprocessor Directives The #define Statement Creating Macros with the #define Statement Changing the Objective-C Language with #define Undefining a Definition with #undef Conditional Compilation The #import Directive