unexpected '@' in program (Xcode)

Question

All of the sudden Xcode is giving me an error "unexpected '@' in program" at the beginning of my object @interface.

This is happening in a bunch of my objects that were previously working...

Here's an example (with errors in comments)

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import "ONCOChordDiamond.h"
@interface ONCOChordView : UIView   //// unexpected '@'  in program
{
    NSMutableArray* chordDiamonds;    
    NSUInteger      diamondWidth, diamondHeight;
}

@end                                /////unexpected '@' in program'

So why is Xcode giving me this error? It seems like a bug.

score 12 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 22 '12 at 01:42

12

I doubt you're still having the issue, but if you are check the header file. I pasted in code from the web in a class and the quotation marks weren't the standard " ". The marks were stylized with an opening quote and a closing quote because it came from a webpage. Retyping the quote marks fixed it.

answered Mar 22 '12 at 01:42

Aaron Douglas

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Thanks for posting this comment; I struggled with a similiar issue for several hours and your comment resolved my issue. Thanks. – 5lb Bass Oct 01 '12 at 14:54

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 19 '11 at 23:26

5

You are including the header from a file that is not compiled as Objective C.

answered Nov 19 '11 at 23:26

Skyler Saleh

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I had this problem while trying to #import the header of an NSString-categorty in an Objective-C++ (.mm) implementation-file. It worked fine however after i moved the #import line to the corresponding header file. Why that is? – arri Mar 15 '14 at 13:17

Duncan Babbage · Answer 3 · 2011-11-20T00:32:41.397

5

Check for syntax errors in the ONCOChordDiamond.h file. They may be highlighted for you if you run Product > Analyze in Xcode.

Importing a file with syntax errors could lead to the compiler not being able to parse the current file correctly, even if the current file's syntax is correct.

edited Nov 20 '11 at 00:32

answered Nov 19 '11 at 23:30

Duncan Babbage

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 01 '12 at 01:20

When encountering this problem with NSString literals, Check that you have used quotation marks, as required.

 (eg. @"myString")

If you find your NSStrings are not correctly syntax coloured, you might check for the following offending characters.

" (QUOTATION MARK) 
″ (DOUBLE PRIME) 
“ (LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK) 
” (RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK)

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 13 '13 at 19:31

For what it's worth, I had this issue and the offending line that was identified was nowhere near any string literals.

I did notice that some of the following lines were colored oddly (again, no string literals to blame), so I tested out putting a bogus string literal in the code just before the offending line.

NSString *whatever = @"";

Apparently, it convinced the compiler that the line wasn't screwed up, so it then compiled just fine without complaining. After that build, I was able to delete the bogus string variable and move on with my life.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 07 '17 at 23:41

I had a similar problem and it was because the last quote was getting escaped out. I was using a multiline string with a terminating "\" to eat up the end of line character.

[ string appendFormat:@"\n\
      vec4 position;\n\
      vec4 inputTextureCoordinate;\n\" ];

After I removed the mistaken "\" that ate up the last quote it worked.

unexpected '@' in program (Xcode)

6 Answers6