Instance variable not retaining value in iOS application

Question

I have declared this ivar in my

ViewController.h

#import 

@interface FirstViewController : UIViewController 

        

Answer 1

NSArray *sortedCountries = [[countries sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:descriptor]]retain];

to

self.sortedCountries = [countries sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:descriptor]];

Answer 2

You are re-declaring sortedCountries as a local variable in viewDidLoad. Use:

sortedCountries = ...

instead (notice no NSArray *). In the code you are using now, sortedCountries would be populated in viewDidLoad, but accessible only in viewDidLoad. You were creating a new variable with the same name instead of setting the class property.