The NSAutoreleasePool class is used to support Cocoa’s reference-counted memory management system. An autorelease pool stores objects that are sent a release message when the pool itself is drained.
Also, If you use Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), you cannot use autorelease pools directly. Instead, you use @autoreleasepool blocks. For example, in place of:
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
// Code benefitting from a local autorelease pool.
[pool release];
You would write:
@autoreleasepool
{
// Code benefitting from a local autorelease pool.
}
@autoreleasepool blocks are more efficient than using an instance of NSAutoreleasePool directly; you can also use them even if you do not use ARC.
