UIAlertController not getting deallocated

Question

I have created a UIAlertController and added a text field into it. The problem is that the after I dismiss the alertcontroller, it is not deallocating and shows in the memory graph.

        let alertController = UIAlertController(title: "Enter link", message: nil, preferredStyle: .alert)
        alertController.addTextField { (textField) in
            textField.placeholder = "www.xxx.com"
        }
        
        let cancel = UIAlertAction(title: "CANCEL", style: .cancel, handler: nil)
        let ok = UIAlertAction(title: "SUBMIT", style: .default) { [weak self] (_) in
            guard let self = self else { return }
            guard let textFields = alertController.textFields, let textField = textFields.first else { return }
            if let text = textField.text {
                
            }
        }
        alertController.addAction(cancel)
        alertController.addAction(ok)
        present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)

However, if I remove the alertController.addTextField then it gets deallocated and it does not exist in the memory graph.

I tried checking if there are any memory leaks introduced due to my code but found none.

@NitantaAdhikari, please follow this https://www.hackingwithswift.com/example-code/uikit/how-to-add-a-uitextfield-to-a-uialertcontroller — Protocol, Sep 28 '21 at 06:01

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 30 '21 at 08:45

You're retaining the alertController inside of "ok" alert action, which is in turn retained by UIAlertController.

That's a retain cycle, neither of objects will be able to release each other.

You should avoid that, perhaps by using a weak reference, i.e:

let ok = UIAlertAction(title: "SUBMIT", style: .default) { [weak alertController] (_) in
    // Upgrade weak to strong reference
    guard let alertController = alertController else { return }
    
    // Do your thing
}

UIAlertController not getting deallocated

1 Answers1