NSObjectIntrospection

A category on NSObject to allow for runtime introspection. It allows you to generate a dictionary with key value pairs of an objects properties.

Prerequisites

• These exensions use ARC; Hence ios4.0+

How to install

• Drag NSObject+introspection folder into your project.
• #import "NSObject+introspection.h" wherever needed.

Usage

Since NSObject is the root class of almost any Objective-C object, it can be called by almost any class you have.

It exposes 4 methods:

-(NSDictionary*)dhc_propertiesDict; //returns a dictionary with key-value pairs of the objects declared properties

-(NSDictionary *)dhc_iVarsDict; //returns a dictionary with key-value pairs of the objects iVars

-(NSDictionary *)dhc_methodsDict; //returns a dictionary with key-value pairs of the objects methods
//currently the  key and value are both the method name string

-(NSDictionary *)dhc_objectIntrospectDictionary; //returns a dictionary with the above 3 dictionaries with keys "properties", "iVars" and "methods"

Usage notes

• any property or iVar that is nil will be an [NSNull null] value for it's corresponding key.
• any scalar properties will automatically be converted to / from their objective equivalents.

Example

SomeObject.h

//SomeObject.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import "SomeOtherObject.h" // not described in readme

@interface SomeObject : NSObject {
  NSString *anIvarString;
}

@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *someString;
@property (nonatomic, strong) SomeOtherObject *someOtherObject;

SomeObject.m

//SomeObject.m
#import "SomeObject.h"

@implementation SomeObject

@synthesize someString;
@synthesize someOtherObject;

-(id)init{
  self=[super init];
  
  if(self){
    anIvarString=@"some string value";
    self.someString=@"a string which is a property of our object"
    self.someOtherObject=[[SomeOtherObject alloc] init];
    }
    
  return self;
}

anywhere in your code

#import "NSObject+Introspection.h"
#import "SomeObject.h"
...
SomeObject *someObject=[[SomeObject alloc] init];

NSDictionary *propsDict=[someObject propertiesDict];

NSLog (@"%@",propsDict.description);

log output

{
    someOtherObject =  "<someOtherObject: 0x765fe50>"; //the dictionary contains the pointer to the actual instance
    someString = "a string which is a property of our object";
}

todo

• talk about removal of .cxx_desctruct method from methods dict, its a method on every nsobject called after dealloc
• add some more interesting extensions :)