NSMutableArray entries all the same.

[markhillig]

I am new to cocoa and new to this forum so forgive me if I seem rather confused. I am working on a simple card game. I have a function in my viewController class that is intended to populate an NSMutableArray with objects corresponding to a class I created to represent each card (deck.m). I use a 'deck' object variable to create each card and then store it in the array. The problem is that each time I use addObject to add the new card to the array all of the objects in the array are changed to the new object being added. I think this is because the deck object used to create the new card is recycled. It appears that each entry in the array is pointing to this one deck variable. My question is, what can I do differently to prevent all the objects in the array from changing? Here is the function in question:

- (NSMutableArray *)stackTheDeck {

	deck *currentCard = [[deck alloc] init];
	NSMutableArray *currentDeck = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
	//NSMutableArray *currentDeck = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:0];
	
	int i = 0;
	
	for(i = 1; i < 53; i++) {
		//Set the state of each card
		[currentCard setPlayed:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"false"]];
		
		//Set the card value
		if((i % 13) == 10) {
			[currentCard setCard:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"J"]];
		}
		else if ((i % 13) == 11) {
			[currentCard setCard:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Q"]];
		}
		else if ((i % 13) == 12) {
			[currentCard setCard:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"K"]];
		}
		else if ((i % 13) == 0) {
			[currentCard setCard:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"A"]];
		}
		else {
			[currentCard setCard:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", (i%13)]];
		}
		
		//Set the suite for the card
		switch (i/13){
			case 0:
				[currentCard setSuite:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"diamond"]];
				break;
			case 1:
				[currentCard setSuite:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"heart"]];
				break;
			case 2:
				[currentCard setSuite:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"spade"]];
				break;
			case 3:
				[currentCard setSuite:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"club"]];
				break;
			default:
				break;
		}
		//[decks insertObject:currentCard atIndex:(i-1)]; //Add the card to the deck
		[currentDeck addObject:currentCard]; //Add the card to the deck
		cardLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ - %@ - %@",[currentCard card], [currentCard suite], [currentCard played]];
	}
	[currentCard release];
		NSLog([NSString stringWithFormat:@"currentDeck contains %d records.",[currentDeck count]]);
	return [currentDeck autorelease];
}

Thanks for looking.

[kelvinkao]

You are allocating just one card and then adding it to the deck 52 times. You should have the allocation inside the loop so you can add a different card each time.

[markhillig]

Originally Posted by kelvinkao

You are allocating just one card and then adding it to the deck 52 times. You should have the allocation inside the loop so you can add a different card each time.

That seems to have resolved the issue. Although I now see some other mistakes I have made. Thanks for the quick assistance! It is always nice to see there are friendly helpful folks when you are new to a forum.