cast of Objective-C pointer type 'NSString *' to C pointer type 'CFStringRef' (aka 'const struct __C

Question

When converting an Objective-C program to a Objective-C ARC, I get the error:

"cast of Objective-C pointer type 'NSString *' to C pointer type 'CFStringRef' (aka 'const struct __CFString *') requires a bridged cast "

The code is as follows:

- (NSString *)_encodeString:(NSString *)string
{
    NSString *result = (NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL, 
                                   (CFStringRef)string, // this is line in error
                                   NULL, 
                                   (CFStringRef)@";/?:@&=$+{}<>,",
                                   kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
    return [result autorelease];
}

What is a bridged cast?

Screenshot for error

You can use '_bridge' or 'CFBridgingRetain' to resolve this error. — Jayprakash Dubey, Oct 8 '14 at 4:57

jtbandes · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-17 18:57:19Z

Have a look at the ARC documentation on the LLVM website. You'll have to use __bridge or one of the other keywords.

This is because Core Foundation objects (CF*Refs) are not controlled by ARC, only Obj-C objects are. So when you convert between them, you have to tell ARC about the object's ownership so it can properly clean them up. The simplest case is a __bridge cast, for which ARC will not do any extra work (it assumes you handle the object's memory yourself).

Thanks, understand.. and the link ont he ARC Documentation was very helpful on the type of __bridge cast to use. — Michael Rowe, Jul 17 '11 at 21:55

benvolioT · Answer 2 · 2011-10-02 04:15:29Z

up vote 18 down vote

Here is a nice ARC tutorial that I found to be easier to understand than Apple's documentation that @jtbandes references.

Take a look at the section titled "Toll free bridging" in particular.

answered Oct 2 '11 at 4:15

benvolioT

3,823 1 26 29

Awesome ARC explanation with clear __bridge examples. – dontangg Jun 8 '12 at 22:37

Mike's posts are always awesome. – orange80 Dec 29 '12 at 5:34

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score 0 · Answer 3

I know this is an old thread, I came across this issue while I need to use

- (NSString *)URLEncodedString 
{
    NSString *result = (NSString *)CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(kCFAllocatorDefault,
                                                                       (CFStringRef)self,
                                                                       NULL, CFSTR("!*'();:@&=+$,/?%#[]"),
                                                                       kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
[result autorelease];
return result;
}

So what I did is go to Target > Build phase > Compile sources. There is your file listed, double click on that and add following lines next to your file.

-fno-objc-arc

cast of Objective-C pointer type 'NSString *' to C pointer type 'CFStringRef' (aka 'const struct __C

3 Answers