Toll-Free Bridging

There are a number of data types in the Core Foundation framework and the Foundation framework that can be used interchangeably. This capability, called toll-free bridging, means that you can use the same data type as the parameter to a Core Foundation function call or as the receiver of an Objective-C message. For example, NSLocale (see NSLocale Class Reference) is interchangeable with its Core Foundation counterpart, CFLocale (see CFLocale Reference). Therefore, in a method where you see an NSLocale * parameter, you can pass a CFLocaleRef, and in a function where you see a CFLocaleRef parameter, you can pass an NSLocale instance. You cast one type to the other to suppress compiler warnings, as illustrated in the following example.

NSLocale *gbNSLocale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_GB"];

CFLocaleRef gbCFLocale = (CFLocaleRef) gbNSLocale;

CFStringRef cfIdentifier = CFLocaleGetIdentifier (gbCFLocale);

NSLog(@"cfIdentifier: %@", (NSString *)cfIdentifier);

// logs: "cfIdentifier: en_GB"

CFRelease((CFLocaleRef) gbNSLocale);

CFLocaleRef myCFLocale = CFLocaleCopyCurrent();

NSLocale * myNSLocale = (NSLocale *) myCFLocale;

[myNSLocale autorelease];

NSString *nsIdentifier = [myNSLocale localeIdentifier];

CFShow((CFStringRef) [@"nsIdentifier: " stringByAppendingString:nsIdentifier]);

// logs identifier for current locale

Note from the example that the memory management functions and methods are also interchangeable—you can use CFRelease with a Cocoa object and release and autorelease with a Core Foundation object.

Note: When using garbage collection, there are important differences to how memory management works for Cocoa objects and Core Foundation objects. See “Using Core Foundation with Garbage Collection” for details.

Toll-free bridging has been available since Mac OS X v10.0. Table 13-1 provides a list of the data types that are interchangeable between Core Foundation and Foundation. For each pair, the table also lists the version of Mac OS X in which toll-free bridging between them became available.

Table 13-1  Data types that can be used interchangeably between Core Foundation and Foundation

Core Foundation type	Foundation class	Availability
CFArrayRef	NSArray	Mac OS X v10.0
CFAttributedStringRef	NSAttributedString	Mac OS X v10.4
CFCalendarRef	NSCalendar	Mac OS X v10.4
CFCharacterSetRef	NSCharacterSet	Mac OS X v10.0
CFDataRef	NSData	Mac OS X v10.0
CFDateRef	NSDate	Mac OS X v10.0
CFDictionaryRef	NSDictionary	Mac OS X v10.0
CFErrorRef	NSError	Mac OS X v10.5
CFLocaleRef	NSLocale	Mac OS X v10.4
CFMutableArrayRef	NSMutableArray	Mac OS X v10.0
CFMutableAttributedStringRef	NSMutableAttributedString	Mac OS X v10.4
CFMutableCharacterSetRef	NSMutableCharacterSet	Mac OS X v10.0
CFMutableDataRef	NSMutableData	Mac OS X v10.0
CFMutableDictionaryRef	NSMutableDictionary	Mac OS X v10.0
CFMutableSetRef	NSMutableSet	Mac OS X v10.0
CFMutableStringRef	NSMutableString	Mac OS X v10.0
CFNumberRef	NSNumber	Mac OS X v10.0
CFReadStreamRef	NSInputStream	Mac OS X v10.0
CFRunLoopTimerRef	NSTimer	Mac OS X v10.0
CFSetRef	NSSet	Mac OS X v10.0
CFStringRef	NSString	Mac OS X v10.0
CFTimeZoneRef	NSTimeZone	Mac OS X v10.0
CFURLRef	NSURL	Mac OS X v10.0
CFWriteStreamRef	NSOutputStream	Mac OS X v10.0

Note: Not all data types are toll-free bridged, even though their names might suggest that they are. For example, NSRunLoop is not toll-free bridged to CFRunLoop, NSBundle is not toll-free bridged to CFBundle, and NSDateFormatter is not toll-free bridged to CFDateFormatter.

(#add莫非桥接的均以Ref结尾)