Re: odd problem with NSMutableDictionary and initWithContentsOfFile

FROM : Jens Alfke
DATE : Thu May 29 16:47:38 2008

On 29 May '08, at 6:41 AM, Leslie Smith wrote:

> I found out what I was doing wrong:  rather than
>
> [SimParamnames initWithContentsOfFile: aFile];
>
> I should have had
>
> SimParamnames = [SimParamnames initWithContentsOfFile: aFile];


No. As two people have said already, *you can't initialize an object 
more than once*. The only time an init method is to be called is right 
after -alloc, when the object is first created. Calling it again will 
unexpectedly reset part of the object's state, and probably mess it up.

What you should do instead of the above line is
   [SimParamnames release];    // to get rid of the old object
   SimParamnames = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile: 
aFile];  // new object

—Jens