Xcode includes a very deep and broad set of documents about iOS. It seems some people don't even know it's there.
Even for those who know it's there, there are some tricks to getting the most out of it. Below is an explanation on how to use the Xcode help system to find information about the various APIs included in iOS:
Using the Xcode help system to search for documents on different APIs:
Pull down the help menu and select "Documentation and API reference"
Tap on the magnifying glass in the upper left corner, by the input box, and select "show find options" if it isn't active already.
Make the following change to the find options:
- Under "Match type", select "contains". That lets you search for partial names. It's slower, but much more useful. You can type part of a method or class name and Xcode will find it.
- Under doc sets, select the version of iOS you are using for development (iOS 5 perhaps) This narrows the search to the current SDK version, speeds up searching, and avoids duplicate search results. Do not select any Mac OS versions, because the Mac OS versions of many APIs are subtly different in ways that will confuse the hell out of you. Also, there are APIs in Mac OS that are not in iOS Some of these will even work on the simulator, even though they are completely unavailable on an iOS device. (like NSURLDownload).
- Under Languages, select "C" and "Objective C". You need C because some of the Core Foundation frameworks are C. You want to turn off Java and JavaScript so your search results aren't cluttered with things you don't care about.
Now type in "NSArray" into the search field. The list of matches will be shown on the left side. You should see an entry under "Reference" for NSArray. Select it to open the NSArray class reference.
I strongly suggest reading the whole class reference overview for NSArray and NSMutableArray, NSString and NSMutableString, and NSDictionary and NSMutableDictionary. These are so fundamental that you really need to know them inside and out. The section of each overview called "tasks" is especially useful, since it groups all the methods for these classes by the types of jobs you need to do.
Don't bother with the subclassing notes. Subclassing these objects is advanced stuff, and not recommended for most iOS developers. They are a type of object called a "class cluster" that makes subclassing difficult.
Use the Xcode help system!
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