Why does NSDictionary report an unusual class name?

Question

NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionary];
NSLog(@\"%@\", NSStringFromClass([dict class])); 

This code prints \"__NSDictionary0\".

For my

Answer 1

NSDictionary is a class cluster. Read about them here:

Cocoa Fundamentals Guide

As the "actual" class itself is private, no, it is not safe to depend on this.

If you need to know if your class is really an NSDictionary or not, use [dict isKindOfClass:[NSDictionary class]];