KVC in Objective-C

 What is KVC?

KVC- Key Value Coding in Objective-C provides a mechanism for accessing the object properties indirectly. KVC makes use of strings to identify the objects properties ,rather than using the accessor methods or accessing them directly through instance variables.

KVC is the core technology of the binding technologies used by the controller layer (MVC), also a key mechanism behind the Core Data. By using KVC we can make the application scriptable, also using the KVC methods can simplify the applications code.

What are Keys and Key Paths?

Key is a string that identifies a specific property of  an object. Typically, a key corresponds to the name of an accessor method or instance variable in the receiving object.

Eg: For a "Person Object" the keys would be firstName,lastName,emailId,address,empId. and so on..

Key Path is string of dot separated keys that is used to specify a sequence of object properties to traverse. The property of the first key in the sequence is relative to the receiver, and subsequent key is evaluated relative to the value of the previous property.

Eg: In case of the person object again the key path 'address.street' would get the value of the address property of the receiving 'person' object , and then determine the 'street' property relative to the 'address' object.

How to get attribute values using Key – Value Coding?

We can easily get the attribute values using the method, ‘valueForKey: ‘ which return the value for the specified key, relative to the receiver. If there is no accessor or instance variable for the specified key, then the receiver sends the message valueForUndefinedKey:  to itself . The default implementation of this method raises an exception NSUndefinedKeyException; The sub classes can override this behavior.

Eg: NSString *fName = [person valueForKey:@"firstName"];
Here the string fName holds the value for the property 'firstName' of the object 'person'.

How to set attribute values using Key – Value Coding?

The method setValue:forKey: sets the value of the specified key, relative to the receiver, to the provided value.If the specified key does not exist, the receiver is sent a setValue: forUndefinedKey: message. The default implementation of this method raises an NSUndefinedKeyException ; however,subclasses can override this method to handle the request in a custom manner.

The method setValue:forKeyPath: behaves in a similar fashion, but it is able to handle a key path
as well as a single key.The setValuesForKeysWithDictionary: sets the properties of the receiver with the values in the specified dictionary, using the dictionary keys to identify the properties. The default implementation invokes setValue:forKey: for each key-value pair, substituting nil for NSNull objects as required.

One additional issue that you should consider is what happens when an attempt is made to set a non-object property to a nil value. In this case, the receiver sends itself a setNilValueForKey: message. The default implementation of setNilValueForKey: raises an NSInvalidArgumentException . Your application can override this method to substitute a default value or a marker value, and then invoke setValue:forKey: with the new value

Get Sample XCode Project showing use of KVC Here!

To know more on KVC refer:

1.Key Value Coding Programming Guide by apple.

2.Understanding Key-Value Observing and Coding