NSCountedSet

Inherits From:
NSMutableSet : NSSet : NSObject

Conforms To:
NSCoding
NSCopying
NSMutableCopying (NSSet)
NSObject (NSObject)

Declared In:
Foundation/NSSet.h

Class At A Glance

Purpose

An NSCountedSet object stores a modifiable set of objects, where a given object can be included in the set multiple times.

Principal Attributes

• The objects that make up the set.
  
• For each object in the set, a count of the number of times the object is included in the set.
  

Commonly Used Methods

- addObject:	Adds an object to the set.
- removeObject:	Removes an object from the set.

Class Description

Each distinct object inserted into an NSCountedSet object has a counter associated with it. NSCountedSet keeps track of the number of times objects are inserted and requires that objects be removed the same number of times. Thus, there is only one instance of an object in an NSSet even if the object has been added to the set multiple times. The NSSet and NSMutableSet classes are provided for static and dynamic sets (respectively) whose elements are distinct.

You add or remove objects from a counted set using the addObject: and removeObject: methods. An NSCountedSet may be queried using the objectEnumerator method, which provides for traversing elements of the set one by one. The countForObject: method returns the number of times the specified object has been added to this set.

Initializing an NSCountedSet

- initWithArray:

- initWithSet:

- initWithCapacity:

Adding and removing entries

- addObject:

- removeObject:

Accessing the members

- allObjects

- count

- countForObject:

- objectEnumerator

Instance Methods

addObject:

Adds anObject to the receiver if it isn't already a member. If anObject is already a member, addObject: increments the count associated with the object. In either case, anObject is then sent a retain message.

allObjects

Returns an array containing the set's members, or an empty array if the set has no members. Each object is only represented in the array once-that is, if you add an object to the set more than once, it will appear only once in the array that is returned by allObjects. The order of the objects in the array isn't defined. This method invokes objectEnumerator as part of its implementation.

count

Returns the number of unique members in the set. Objects that are added to the set multiple times are only reflected in the count once.

countForObject:

Returns the count associated with anObject in the receiver, which can be thought of as the number of occurrences of anObject that are present in the set.

initWithArray:

Initializes a newly allocated counted set object with the contents of anArray. Returns self.

See also: - initWithArray: (NSSet), + setWithArray:(NSSet)

initWithCapacity:

The designated initializer, this method initializes a newly allocated set object, giving it enough memory to hold numItems objects.

See also: - initWithCapacity: (NSMutableSet) + setWithCapacity: (NSMutableSet)

initWithSet:

Initializes a newly allocated counted set object with the contents of aSet. Returns self.

See also: - initWithSet:(NSSet), +setWithSet:(NSSet)

objectEnumerator

Returns an enumerator object that lets you access each object in the set, independent of its count. This means that if you add a given object to the counted set multiple times, an enumeration of the set will produce that object only once.

When this method is used with a counted set, your code shouldn't modify the set during enumeration. If you intend to modify the set, use the allObjects method to create a "snapshot," then enumerate the snapshot and modify the original set.

See also: - nextObject (NSEnumerator)

removeObject:

If anObject is present in the set, decrements the count associated with it. If the count is decremented to zero, anObject is removed from the set and is sent a release message. removeObject: does nothing if anObject is not present in the receiver.

See also: - countForObject:

Copyright © 1997, Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.