Create singleton using GCD's dispatch_once in Objective-C

This is a perfectly acceptable and thread-safe way to create an instance of your class. It may not technically be a "singleton" (in that there can only ever be 1 of these objects), but as long as you only use the [Foo sharedFoo] method to access the object, this is good enough.

instancetype

instancetype is just one of the many language extensions to Objective-C, with more being added with each new release.

Know it, love it.

And take it as an example of how paying attention to the low-level details can give you insights into powerful new ways to transform Objective-C.

Refer here: instancetype

---

+ (instancetype)sharedInstance
{
    static dispatch_once_t once;
    static id sharedInstance;

    dispatch_once(&once, ^
    {
        sharedInstance = [self new];
    });    
    return sharedInstance;
}

---

+ (Class*)sharedInstance
{
    static dispatch_once_t once;
    static Class *sharedInstance;

    dispatch_once(&once, ^
    {
        sharedInstance = [self new];
    });    
    return sharedInstance;
}

MySingleton.h

@interface MySingleton : NSObject

+(instancetype)sharedInstance;

+(instancetype)alloc __attribute__((unavailable("alloc not available, call sharedInstance instead")));
-(instancetype)init __attribute__((unavailable("init not available, call sharedInstance instead")));
+(instancetype)new __attribute__((unavailable("new not available, call sharedInstance instead")));
-(instancetype)copy __attribute__((unavailable("copy not available, call sharedInstance instead")));

@end

MySingleton.m

@implementation MySingleton

+(instancetype)sharedInstance {
    static dispatch_once_t pred;
    static id shared = nil;
    dispatch_once(&pred, ^{
        shared = [[super alloc] initUniqueInstance];
    });
    return shared;
}

-(instancetype)initUniqueInstance {
    return [super init];
}

@end