BKRecursiveDescription

Installation

1. Add BKRecursiveDescription to your Podfile.
2. In your terminal, run pod install.

Usage

1. Add #import <BKRecursiveDescription/BKRecursiveDescription.h> to your source file (or to your prefix header, if you want to access it anywhere in your project).
2. Implement the method - (void)bk_addRecursiveDescriptionToString:(NSMutableString *)string level:(NSUInteger)level on your class.
3. Call [yourObject bk_recursiveDescription] on your object to get an NSString containing the recursive description of your object.

// Implemented in a class named "BKSomeClass" (adapted from the example project)
- (void)bk_addRecursiveDescriptionToString:(NSMutableString *)string level:(NSUInteger)level
{
    DESCRIBE_SELF(string, self);

    DESCRIBE_VARIABLE(string, level, _drawerPosition); // enum
    DESCRIBE_VARIABLE(string, level, _bounds); // CGRect
    DESCRIBE_VARIABLE(string, level, _drawerOffset); // CGFloat
    DESCRIBE_VARIABLE(string, level, _drawerInsets); // UIEdgeInsets
    DESCRIBE_VARIABLE(string, level, _acceptSpec); // NSObject with its own recursive description method
}

Outputs:

<BKSomeClass: 0x15695620>
 |_drawerPosition = (unsigned int)1
 |_bounds = (CGRect){{0, 0}, {320, 568}}
 |_drawerOffset = (float)198.500000
 |_drawerInsets = (UIEdgeInsets){44, 0, 172.5, 0}
 |_acceptSpec = <BKCameraRollButtonSpec: 0x15695790>
 | |_bounds = (CGRect){{0, 0}, {40, 40}}
 | |_center = (CGPoint){280, 168.5}
 | |_alpha = (float)0.473901

FAQ

Q: What's with that string and level stuff in the macros?
A: It might not always be practical to recursively implement a recursive description method on a tree of objects, and some wiggle room is needed for those implementations. As such, the raw string that's being built is provided directly. This also allows for custom strings to be inserted, such as headers or separators, when organizing the description of properties.

The level allows collections to indent their contents appropriately - or, again, for custom implementations to tweak the description levels as needed for complex descriptions if needed. Most developers need not worry about this, and can simply pass the parameters in unchanged.

Q: C11 generics?
A: Yep. They're disabled if you don't support them, though, via #if __has_feature(c_generic_selections). You can still access the underlying C functions that the generic macro resolves to, i.e. _RD_DESCRIBE_CGRECT, if you prefer. Those methods' declarations specify that they should always be inlined.

Incidentally, the C functions are necessary because C11 generics only seem to select expressions, not statements.

Q: Why the do {} while(0) wrapping? Does that even do anything?
A: Yep - it's par for the course for C preprocessor programming. It groups a series of statements into one, so that the curly braces don't disrupt, for example, braceless if statements when the macros are expanded.

Documentation

The magic

• DESCRIBE_VARIABLE(string, level, variable)
  • Stringifies and uses the expression variable as the name in the description, then resolves the macro to DESCRIBE_VALUE.
• DESCRIBE_VALUE(string, level, name, value)
  • Appends a variable to string, formatted according to parameter type, using C11 generic expressions. Supports float,double, short, unsigned short, int, unsigned int, long, unsigned long, long long, unsigned long long, BOOL, CGPoint, CGRect, UIEdgeInsets, and NSObject (+ subclasses).

The usual

• DESCRIBE_SELF(string, object)
  • Appends the class name of object followed by its pointer value to string. By convention, always the first statement in the recursive description implementation.
• DESCRIBE_OBJECT(string, level, name, object)
  • Appends the description for object with the given name to string. If object supports recursive description, its recursive description will be used. object may be nil.
• DESCRIBE_VALUE_WITH_FORMAT(string, level, name, format, value)
  • Appends a description with an explicit format string to string.