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I have about 50 CGPoint objects that describe something like a "path", and I want to add them to an NSArray. It's going to be a method that will just return the corresponding CGPoint for an given index. I don't want to create 50 variables like p1 = ...; p2 = ..., and so on. Is there an easy way that would let me to define those points "instantly" when initializing the NSArray with objects?

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3 Answers 3

up vote 269 down vote accepted

With UIKit Apple added support for CGPoint to NSValue, so you can do:

NSArray *points = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
                     [NSValue valueWithCGPoint:CGPointMake(5.5, 6.6)],
                     [NSValue valueWithCGPoint:CGPointMake(7.7, 8.8)],

List as many [NSValue] instances as you have CGPoint, and end the list in nil. All objects in this structure are auto-released.

On the flip side, when you're pulling the values out of the array:

NSValue *val = [points objectAtIndex:0];
CGPoint p = [val CGPointValue];
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Cool. How would that work for any kind of scalar type? –  Thanks May 22 '09 at 20:03
For scalar types, have a look at NSNumber... you'll see constructors like numberWithBool: numberWithInteger: numberWithFloat:, numberWithUnsignedShort:, etc. –  Jarret Hardie May 22 '09 at 20:07
Alternatively you can use NSValue directly: [NSValue valueWithBytes: &someStructSockaddr objCType: @encode(struct sockaddr)] for instance. –  Jim Dovey May 23 '09 at 1:42

Have you taken a look at CFMutableArray? That might work better for you.

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I use this:

Create array:

NSArray *myArray = @[[NSValue valueWithCGPoint:CGPointMake(30.0, 150.0)],[NSValue valueWithCGPoint:CGPointMake(41.67, 145.19)]];

Get 1st CGPoint object:

CGPoint myPoint = [myArray[0] CGPointValue];
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