When should I call super?

inheritance, objective-c, oop

Solution

The usual rule of thumb is that when you are overriding a method that does some kind of initialization, you call super first and then do your stuff. And when you override some kind of teardown method, you call super last:

- (void) setupSomething {
    [super setupSomething];
    …
}

- (void) tearDownSomething {
    …
    [super tearDownSomething];
}

The first kind are methods like `init…`, `viewWillAppear`, `viewDidLoad` or `setUp`. The second are things like `dealloc`, `viewDidUnload`, `viewWillDisappear` or `tearDown`. This is no hard rule, it just follows from the things the methods do.

Problem

What is the best using of `[super ... any method name]`. Recently I have found out that In dealloc the `[super dealloc]` must stand in the same end. Because any variable what didn't use before can be filled by garbage if we set it after `[super dealloc]` It's a rare thing, but it's possible. After this we will have crash in our app. So what is the best using of super method, for example what is best using for `-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated`. Where is the best place for `[super viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated]` in the begin of body or in the end?

Original source