How to better initialize strings to avoid dead stores

Question

I found a few questions like this but I couldn't find this particular question. I have a number of strings that are initialized as

NSString *string = [[NSString alloc] init];

which are then assigned a value depending on the results of an if/else block:

if ([anotherThing isEqualToString:@"boogers"]) {
    string = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"some characters"];
} else {
    string = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"some _other_ characters"];
}

and then string is used later in the method.

How can I accomplish this without leaving a dead store at the alloc/init stage? If I alloc inside the if (or the else), the string is gone by the time I need it several lines down.

Answer 1

You don't have to initialize the string on that first line -- you just need to declare it:

NSString *string = nil;
if ([anotherThing isEqualToString:@"boogers"]) {
    string = @"some characters";
} else {
    string = @"some _other_ characters";
}