HBCollections

Objective-C categories for functional data structure traversal with blocks. The interface was inspired by Javascript Array Iteration Methods. The implementation was inspired by Mike Ash's Implementating Fast Enumeration Friday Q&A.

Submodules

This project uses git submodules Run immediately after cloning: git submodule update --init

Why

Your loop bodies and if predicates become reusable blocks, fine-grained code reuse points with which you can assemble larger systems.

Simple Examples

Instead of iterating your array with a for loop, you can enumerate your array. Instead of totalling your array with a for loop, you can reduce your array to a total.

Compatibility

Most methods return chainable NSEnumerators, so you can map, then add filtering, then add breaking, and still use a fast enumeration for loop (of course, you could always just reduce or enumerate it). (A more complex example). Arrays, sets, and enumerators use the same API, [so your blocks can interoperate, unlike foundation block enumeration)][share-blocks].

Convenience

Although you can easily reduce an array to a dictionary, there is a convenience method to do it for you. Foundation APIs allow you to convert an enumerator to an array, but HBCollections gives you convenience methods to convert to a mutable array, set, and mutable set.

Implementation

There is a protocol in case you have your own data structure you want to traverse. Under the hood, everything uses fast enumeration and uses just one memory buffer for intermediate storage.

License

BSD 3-Clause