Is there a difference between YES/NO,TRUE/FALSE and true/false in objective-c?

Simple question really; is there a difference between these values (and is there a difference between BOOL and bool)? A co-worker mentioned that they evaluate to different things in Objective-C, but when I looked at the typedefs in their respective .h files, YES/TRUE/true were all defined as 1 and NO/FALSE/false were all defined as 0. Is there really any difference?

Solution 1:

I believe there is a difference between bool and BOOL, check out this webpage for an explanation of why:
http://iosdevelopertips.com/objective-c/of-bool-and-yes.html

Because BOOL is an unsigned char rather than a primitive type, variables of type BOOL can contain values other than YES and NO.

Consider this code:

BOOL b = 42;

if (b) {
    printf("b is not NO!\n");
}

if (b != YES) {
    printf("b is not YES!\n");
}

The output is:

b is not NO!
b is not YES!

For most people this is an unnecessary concern, but if you really want a boolean it is better to use a bool. I should add: the iOS SDK generally uses BOOL on its interface definitions, so that is an argument to stick with BOOL.

Solution 2:

There is no practical difference provided you use BOOL variables as booleans. C processes boolean expressions based on whether they evaluate to 0 or not 0. So:

if(someVar ) { ... }
if(!someVar) { ... }

means the same as

if(someVar!=0) { ... }
if(someVar==0) { ... }

which is why you can evaluate any primitive type or expression as a boolean test (including, e.g. pointers). Note that you should do the former, not the latter.

Note that there is a difference if you assign obtuse values to a so-called BOOL variable and test for specific values, so always use them as booleans and only assign them from their #define values.

Importantly, never test booleans using a character comparison -- it's not only risky because someVar could be assigned a non-zero value which is not YES, but, in my opinion more importantly, it fails to express the intent correctly:

if(someVar==YES) { ... } // don't do this!
if(someVar==NO ) { ... } // don't do this either!

In other words, use constructs as they are intended and documented to be used and you'll spare yourself from a world of hurt in C.

Solution 3:

I did an exhaustive test on this. My results should speak for themselves:

//These will all print "1"
NSLog(@"%d", true == true);
NSLog(@"%d", TRUE == true);
NSLog(@"%d", YES  == true);
NSLog(@"%d", true == TRUE);
NSLog(@"%d", TRUE == TRUE);
NSLog(@"%d", YES  == TRUE);
NSLog(@"%d", true == YES);
NSLog(@"%d", TRUE == YES);
NSLog(@"%d", YES  == YES);

NSLog(@"%d", false == false);
NSLog(@"%d", FALSE == false);
NSLog(@"%d", NO    == false);
NSLog(@"%d", false == FALSE);
NSLog(@"%d", FALSE == FALSE);
NSLog(@"%d", NO    == FALSE);
NSLog(@"%d", false == NO);
NSLog(@"%d", FALSE == NO);
NSLog(@"%d", NO    == NO);


//These will all print "0"
NSLog(@"%d", false == true);
NSLog(@"%d", FALSE == true);
NSLog(@"%d", NO    == true);
NSLog(@"%d", false == TRUE);
NSLog(@"%d", FALSE == TRUE);
NSLog(@"%d", NO    == TRUE);
NSLog(@"%d", false == YES);
NSLog(@"%d", FALSE == YES);
NSLog(@"%d", NO    == YES);

NSLog(@"%d", true == false);
NSLog(@"%d", TRUE == false);
NSLog(@"%d", YES  == false);
NSLog(@"%d", true == FALSE);
NSLog(@"%d", TRUE == FALSE);
NSLog(@"%d", YES  == FALSE);
NSLog(@"%d", true == NO);
NSLog(@"%d", TRUE == NO);
NSLog(@"%d", YES  == NO);

The output is:

2013-02-19 20:30:37.061 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.061 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.072 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.073 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.073 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.074 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.074 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.075 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.075 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.076 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.077 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.077 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.078 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.078 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.079 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.079 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.080 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.080 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 1
2013-02-19 20:30:37.081 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.081 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.082 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.091 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.092 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.093 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.093 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.094 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.094 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.095 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.095 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.096 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.096 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.097 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.098 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.101 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.102 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0
2013-02-19 20:30:37.102 BooleanTests[27433:a0f] 0

Solution 4:

You might want to read the answers to this question. In summary, in Objective-C (from the definition in objc.h):

typedef signed char        BOOL; 
// BOOL is explicitly signed so @encode(BOOL) == "c" rather than "C" 
// even if -funsigned-char is used.
#define OBJC_BOOL_DEFINED


#define YES             (BOOL)1
#define NO              (BOOL)0

Is there a difference between YES/NO,TRUE/FALSE and true/false in objective-c?

Solution 1:

Solution 2:

Solution 3:

Solution 4:

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