我们知道,使用Category可以很方便地为现有的类增加方法,但却无法直接增加实例变量。不过从Mac OS X v10.6开始,系统提供了Associative References,这个问题就很容易解决了。这种方法也就是所谓的关联(association),我们可以在runtime期间动态地添加任意多的属性,并且随时读取。所用到的两个重要runtime API是:
* objc_setAssociatedObject 添加关系
**
* Sets an associated value for a given object using a given key and association policy.
*
* @param object The source object for the association.
* @param key The key for the association.
* @param value The value to associate with the key key for object. Pass nil to clear an existing association.
* @param policy The policy for the association. For possible values, see “Associative Object Behaviors.”
*
OBJC_EXPORT void objc_setAssociatedObject(id object, const void *key, id value, objc_AssociationPolicy policy)
* objc_getAssociatedObject 取值
* Returns the value associated with a given object for a given key.
*
* @param object The source object for the association.
* @param key The key for the association.
*
* @return The value associated with the key \e key for \e object.
*
* @see objc_setAssociatedObject
OBJC_EXPORT id objc_getAssociatedObject(id object, const void *key)
__OSX_AVAILABLE_STARTING(__MAC_10_6, __IPHONE_3_1);