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up vote 12 down vote favorite
1

What is the syntax to declare a C function that returns an Objective-C block? Is it possible?

I thought it should be something like

(void (^)(void)) myFunctionReturningABlock();

but that won't compile.

share|improve this question
1  
When you say doesn't work, could you elaborate a little? Does it break at runtime or does it generate a compiler error or warning? Let us know what "doesn't work" means and we can help you further. –  Jasarien Nov 28 '11 at 14:05
1  
possible duplicate of Objective-C Block type as return value –  Ferruccio Nov 28 '11 at 14:08
    
@Jasarien Sorry, I'm getting lazy. Fixed. –  Nick Moore Nov 29 '11 at 15:08

1 Answer 1

up vote 13 down vote accepted

The syntax for your function is slightly incorrect.

As I understand it, you should define your block as a type which you can use as the return type for your function like this:

typedef void(^MyAwesomeBlock)(void);

MyAwesomeBlock blockFunction()
{
    MyAwesomeBlock block = ^{
        //some code;
    };

    return block;
}
share|improve this answer
    
Thanks, that works perfectly. I also tried the 'typedef-less' version in the linked possible duplicate, but having a typedef makes it so much clearer. –  Nick Moore Nov 29 '11 at 15:33
    
Is there a typedef-less version of this? –  nielsbot Jul 19 '12 at 0:51
    
@nielsbot if you read the comment just above yours, you'll notice that Nick refers to a typedef-less linked in a comment on the question, further up the page. But as Nick says, using a typedef makes the code much more readable - you generally don't want a typedef-less version, unless you want messy unreadable code?? :/ –  Jasarien Jul 19 '12 at 9:47
    
oh.. I looked for it here... I see it's in an answer to a question linked to via a comment on this question ;-) –  nielsbot Jul 19 '12 at 21:59

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