Why is is this necessary

Hi guys, there is something I am still confused about after going through the objective-c screen casts:

-(id)initWithTitle:(NSString *)newTitle andRating:(int)newRating
{
    /*
    self = [super init]; //why? 
    if (nil != self) {
        self.title = newTitle;
        self.rating = newRating;
    }

    return self;
     */
    title = newTitle;
    rating = newRating;
    return self;
}


	
Why is the following piece of code necessary:


<code>
 self = [super init]; //why? 
    if (nil != self) {
        self.title = newTitle;
        self.rating = newRating;
    }
</code>

vs just typing:

<pre><code>
    title = newTitle;
    rating = newRating;
    return self; 
</code>

Under the custom init method?

Thanks

Hi Don,

Sorry to be so late getting back to you.

The call to super is not technically absolutely necessary today. But… you should always call your super classes designated initializer. For this object’s super class (NSObject) the init does not much more than setting the class, but for more involved objects it would be very bad to skip the super classes implementation.

For example if you were to override initWithFrame: on a UIView and not call super, very bad things would happen (not death or anything, but your view would be hosed).

Hope this helps!