Is there an NSMutableArray version of NSMapTable?

Question

I want to keep a mutable array of weak references to a group of UIViews. NSMapTable is perfect for this need, except for one detail... NSMapTable wants a key for every value it holds.

Is there something like an NSMapArray? If not, do I need to generate throw-away unique keys for all the values I store? Should I use NSUUID to generate the key names?

EDIT: Please not that I'm talking about truly weak, self-zeroing references. CFArrays and NSValue solutions store references which won't nil themselves out when their referenced object gets deallocated...they'll just end up as junk pointers.

Answer 1

You can try NSHashTable on iOS 6, which is like a NSSet, with support for weak references (and NSPointerArray looks nice too, but the doc says it does not support weak references under ARC).

Edit: Some people seem to think that contrary to what the doc says, NSPointerArray does zero weak references under ARC. The OS X 10.8 Foundation Release Notes say so, even though the class documentation says the opposite (iOS release notes don't say). After all, that's why they added the + weakObjectsPointerArray constructor, and the NSPointerFunctionsWeakMemory option in OS X 10.8 and iOS 6.0... You should try...