This is one of those things that comes from the C background - any non-zero 
value is true; thus the two statements are equivalent. I prefer the "if (self = 
[super init])" combined form, myself.

On Feb 24, 2012, at 8:50 AM, Oleg Krupnov wrote:

> An interesting question. The following samples are equivalent in terms
> of compiled code, but which one is more correct from the language's
> point of view?
> 
> self = [super init];
> if (self)
> {
> }
> return self;
> 
> self = [super init];
> if (self != nil)
> {
> }
> return self;
> 
> The Xcode samples promote the first variant, but I'm wondering if the
> second one is more correct?
> 
> The "nil" is defined as follows (jumped to definition)
> 
> #define nil NULL
> #define NULL ((void*)0)
> 
> So basically, nil is of type "void*", so the expression "self != nil"
> compares two pointers and the result is "boolean", which is perfect
> for testing in the "if" statement. But the "self" alone is of type
> "pointer" and so when it is tested by the "if" statement, it's
> implicitly cast to the type "boolean".
> 
> I also heard that generally speaking NULL is not necessarily always
> equal to 0 on all architectures.
> 
> Thoughts?
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