How do I insert strings into an NSArray and return them later for printing or comparing?

Question

I am trying to create a NSMutableArray of size 100 and then fill every index with the a string of three blank spaces, " ". I am either creating the array incorrectly or I am returning the objects incorrectly. Here is my method that creates the array:

-(void) initBoard{
    _board = [board initWithCapacity:100];
    for(int i =0; i < 100; i++){
        [_board addObject:@"   "];
    }
}

This method is not functioning properly. I added an a for loop after the one above that contained NSLog @"@%", [_board objectAtIndex: i]; so that I could verify that there were actually strings comprised of three blank spaces at every index, but all that it would print out in the console was "nil". So far I have tried:

• I thought that maybe the addObjectAtIndex was the problem so I just changed it to addObject and changed the initWithCapacity to just init]; to allow the for loop to build the array to size 100.

• Then I thought that maybe the problem was with trying to insert the literal string, @" " (IDK how to make Stackoverflow show my 3 spaces, not just 1), so I added NSString *input = @" "; right before the for loop, and then changed [_board addObject:@" "]; to `[_board addObject:input;

Any suggestions on how to actually create an NSMutableArray of size 100 and make every spot contain the same string of three blank spaces?

Answer 1

You need to allocate and than initialize the mutable array:

-(void) initBoard{
    _board = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:100];
    for(int i =0; i < 100; i++){
        [_board addObject:@"   "];
    }
}