What should my Objective-C singleton look like? [closed]

Answer 1

The accepted answer, although it compiles, is incorrect.

+ (MySingleton*)sharedInstance
{
    @synchronized(self)  <-------- self does not exist at class scope
    {
        if (sharedInstance == nil)
            sharedInstance = [[MySingleton alloc] init];
    }
    return sharedInstance;
}

Per Apple documentation:

... You can take a similar approach to synchronize the class methods of the associated class, using the Class object instead of self.

Even if using self works, it shouldn't and this looks like a copy and paste mistake to me. The correct implementation for a class factory method would be:

+ (MySingleton*)getInstance
{
    @synchronized([MySingleton class]) 
    {
        if (sharedInstance == nil)
            sharedInstance = [[MySingleton alloc] init];
    }
    return sharedInstance;
}

Answer 2

Since Kendall posted a threadsafe singleton that attempts to avoid locking costs, I thought I would toss one up as well:

#import <libkern/OSAtomic.h>

static void * volatile sharedInstance = nil;                                                

+ (className *) sharedInstance {                                                                    
  while (!sharedInstance) {                                                                          
    className *temp = [[self alloc] init];                                                                 
    if(!OSAtomicCompareAndSwapPtrBarrier(0x0, temp, &sharedInstance)) {
      [temp release];                                                                                   
    }                                                                                                    
  }                                                                                                        
  return sharedInstance;                                                                        
}

Okay, let me explain how this works:

1. Fast case: In normal execution sharedInstance has already been set, so the while loop is never executed and the function returns after simply testing for the variable's existence;

2. Slow case: If sharedInstance doesn't exist, then an instance is allocated and copied into it using a Compare And Swap ('CAS');

3. Contended case: If two threads both attempt to call sharedInstance at the same time AND sharedInstance doesn't exist at the same time then they will both initialize new instances of the singleton and attempt to CAS it into position. Whichever one wins the CAS returns immediately, whichever one loses releases the instance it just allocated and returns the (now set) sharedInstance. The single OSAtomicCompareAndSwapPtrBarrier acts as both a write barrier for the setting thread and a read barrier from the testing thread.

Answer 3

static mySingleton *obj=nil;

@implementation mySingleton

-(id) init {
    if(obj != nil){     
        [self release];
        return obj;
    } else if(self = [super init]) {
        obj = self;
    }   
    return obj;
}

+(mySingleton*) getSharedInstance {
    @synchronized(self){
        if(obj == nil) {
            obj = [[mySingleton alloc] init];
        }
    }
    return obj;
}

- (id)retain {
    return self;
}

- (id)copy {
    return self;
}

- (unsigned)retainCount {
    return UINT_MAX;  // denotes an object that cannot be released
}

- (void)release {
    if(obj != self){
        [super release];
    }
    //do nothing
}

- (id)autorelease {
    return self;
}

-(void) dealloc {
    [super dealloc];
}
@end

Answer 4

I have an interesting variation on sharedInstance that is thread safe, but does not lock after the initialization. I am not yet sure enough of it to modify the top answer as requested, but I present it for further discussion:

// Volatile to make sure we are not foiled by CPU caches
static volatile ALBackendRequestManager *sharedInstance;

// There's no need to call this directly, as method swizzling in sharedInstance
// means this will get called after the singleton is initialized.
+ (MySingleton *)simpleSharedInstance
{
    return (MySingleton *)sharedInstance;
}

+ (MySingleton*)sharedInstance
{
    @synchronized(self)
    {
        if (sharedInstance == nil)
        {
            sharedInstance = [[MySingleton alloc] init];
            // Replace expensive thread-safe method 
            // with the simpler one that just returns the allocated instance.
            SEL origSel = @selector(sharedInstance);
            SEL newSel = @selector(simpleSharedInstance);
            Method origMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, origSel);
            Method newMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, newSel);
            method_exchangeImplementations(origMethod, newMethod);
        }
    }
    return (MySingleton *)sharedInstance;
}

Answer 5

I usually use code roughly similar to that in Ben Hoffstein's answer (which I also got out of Wikipedia). I use it for the reasons stated by Chris Hanson in his comment.

However, sometimes I have a need to place a singleton into a NIB, and in that case I use the following:

@implementation Singleton

static Singleton *singleton = nil;

- (id)init {
    static BOOL initialized = NO;
    if (!initialized) {
        self = [super init];
        singleton = self;
        initialized = YES;
    }
    return self;
}

+ (id)allocWithZone:(NSZone*)zone {
    @synchronized (self) {
        if (!singleton)
            singleton = [super allocWithZone:zone];     
    }
    return singleton;
}

+ (Singleton*)sharedSingleton {
    if (!singleton)
        [[Singleton alloc] init];
    return singleton;
}

@end

I leave the implementation of -retain (etc.) to the reader, although the above code is all you need in a garbage collected environment.

Answer 6

Another option is to use the +(void)initialize method. From the documentation:

The runtime sends initialize to each class in a program exactly one time just before the class, or any class that inherits from it, is sent its first message from within the program. (Thus the method may never be invoked if the class is not used.) The runtime sends the initialize message to classes in a thread-safe manner. Superclasses receive this message before their subclasses.

So you could do something akin to this:

static MySingleton *sharedSingleton;

+ (void)initialize
{
    static BOOL initialized = NO;
    if(!initialized)
    {
        initialized = YES;
        sharedSingleton = [[MySingleton alloc] init];
    }
}