What is the Objective-C equivalent for "toString()", for use with NSLog?

It is the description instance method, declared as:

- (NSString *)description

Here's an example implementation (thanks to grahamparks):

- (NSString *)description {
   return [NSString stringWithFormat: @"Photo: Name=%@ Author=%@", name, author];
}

There are two functions that you can use.

- (NSString*)description

This will be displayed when you put your object as, I.E. a parameter for NSLog. The other description function is:

- (NSString*)debugDescription

This will be called when you do po anInstanceOfYourClass in the debug command window. If your class doesn't have a debugDescription function, then just description will be called.

Note that the base class NSObject does have description implemented, but it is fairly bare-bones: it only displays the address of the object. This is why I recommend that you implement description in any class you want to get info out of, especially if you use the description method in your code. If you do use description in your code, I suggest you implement debugDescription as well, also making debugDescription more verbose.

You can override the description method of NSObject:

- (NSString *)description

On the subject of logging I recommend this blog post for better logging in Objective-C.

Add this to the @implementation of your Photo class:

- (NSString *)description {
   return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Photo: Name=%@ Author=%@",name,author];
}