How to get rid of the 'undeclared selector' warning

Question

I want to use a selector on an NSObject instance without the need for an implemented protocol. For example, there's a category method that should set an error property if the NSObject instance it's called on supports it. This is the code, and the code works as intended:

if ([self respondsToSelector:@selector(setError:)])
{
    [self performSelector:@selector(setError:) withObject:[NSError errorWithDomain:@"SomeDomain" code:1 userInfo:nil]];
}

However, the compiler doesn't see any method around with the setError: signature, so it gives me a warning, for each line that contains the @selector(setError:) snippet:

Undeclared selector 'setError:'

I don't want to have to declare a protocol to get rid of this warning, because I don't want all classes that may use this to implement anything special. Just by convention I want them to have a setError: method or property.

Is this doable? How?

Cheers,
EP

Answer 1

Another option would be to disable the warning with:

#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wundeclared-selector"

You can place this line in the .m file where the warning occurs.

Update:

It works also with LLVM like this:

#pragma clang diagnostic push
#pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wundeclared-selector"

... your code here ...

#pragma clang diagnostic pop

Answer 2

Have a look at NSSelectorFromString.

 SEL selector = NSSelectorFromString(@"setError:");
 if ([self respondsToSelector:selector])

It will allow you to create a selector at runtime, instead of at compile time through the @selector keyword, and the compiler will have no chance to complain.

Answer 3

I think this is because for some odd reason the selector isn't registered with the runtime.

Try registering the selector via sel_registerName():

SEL setErrorSelector = sel_registerName("setError:");

if([self respondsToSelector:setErrorSelector]) {
   [self performSelector:setErrorSelector withObject:[NSError errorWithDomain:@"SomeDomain" code:1 userInfo:nil]];
}

Answer 4

I got that message to go away by #include'ing the file with the method. Nothing else was used from that file.

Answer 5

I realise I'm a bit late to this thread but for completeness, you can globally turn off this warning using the target build settings.

In section, 'Apple LLVM warnings - Objective-C', change:

Undeclared Selector - NO

Answer 6

If your class implements the setError: method (even by declaring dynamic the setter of the eventual error property) you might want to declare it in your interface file ( .h), or if you don't like to show it that way you could try with the PrivateMethods tricky trick:

@interface Yourclass (PrivateMethods)

- (void) yourMethod1;
- (void) yourMethod2;

@end

just before your @implementation , this should hide the warnings ;).

Answer 7

A really comfortable macro to put in your .pch or Common.h or wherever you want:

#define SUPPRESS_UNDECLARED_SELECTOR_LEAK_WARNING(code)                        \
_Pragma("clang diagnostic push")                                        \
_Pragma("clang diagnostic ignored \"-Wundeclared-selector"\"")     \
code;                                                                   \
_Pragma("clang diagnostic pop")                                         \

It's an edit of this question for similar issue...

Answer 8

You can turn it off in Xcode like in the screenshot:

Answer 9

You can also cast the object in question to an id first to avoid the warning:

if ([object respondsToSelector:@selector(myMethod)]) {
    [(id)object myMethod];
}

Answer 10

Another way to avoid this warning is to make sure your selector method looks like this:

-(void) myMethod :(id) sender{
}

Don't forget "(id) sender" if you want to accept any sender or specify a type of a sender object if you prefer.

Answer 11

While the correct answer likely lies in informing Xcode through imports or registering the selector that such a selector exists, in my case I was missing a semi-colon. Make sure before you "fix" the error that perhaps, the error is correct and your code isn't. I found the error in Apple's MVCNetworking sample, for instance.

Answer 12

I was able to get the warning to go away by adding thenothing method (disclosure: I didn't think of this but found it by googling on scheduledtimerwithtimeinterval)

    [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:[[NSDate distantFuture] timeIntervalSinceNow]
                                     target:self
                                   selector:@selector(donothingatall:)
                                   userInfo:nil
                                    repeats:YES];


    [[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] run];

    HTTPLogVerbose(@"%@: BonjourThread: Aborted", THIS_FILE);

    }
}

+ (void) donothingatall:(NSTimer *)timer
{

}

While I appreciate knowing how to hide the warning, fixing it is better and neither Sergio's nor Relkin's techniques worked for me, for unknown reasons.