NSMutableArray Weak References

I had the need to store non-retained objects to prevent a retain lock loop.  I found a couple of different ways to do this.  I started by trying to implement a derived version of NSMutableArray.  There is a nice example by Mike Ash on how to do implement a NSMutableArray.  It would be fairly easy to modify his example to remove the retain/release pieces.  However, I was a bit nervous when it came to testing the code and my changes.  While he has a test in place, the test wouldn't work if the objects weren't retained.

So I kept looking and found a great example on Stack Overflow by Mark Powell that takes advantage of Core Foundation's Mutable array.

I haven't done much with Core Foundation services, but I have to say that it's amazing how easy this was to do.  I modified the example above to work with ARC so there is a __bridge cast for the returned CGArrayCreateMutable. I put this along with my changes in a small class and header file which can be downloaded at Download NSArrayWeakReference Source.

I hope you found this helpful.

- Tod