Setting properties defined in a super class in the initialiser

Question

From what I learned a general rule of thumb setting values in init is a matter of using the ivars directly.

For example

@interface CustomClass

@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *name;

@end

and then:

- (instancetype)initWithName:(NSString *)name
{
    if (self = [super init]) {
        _name = name;
    }

    return self;
}

Now so far so good. I'm interested in a slightly different case. Let's say you're subclassing a UIView and in the initialiser you want to assign a background color to that subclass. Here, the property backgroundColor is defined in the parent class. My question is: Is it bad style or potentially wrong to use self in the initialiser? Would it be better to set the background color somewhere else?

- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor greenColor];
    }

    return self;
}

Answer 1

I believe it is perfectly fine what you are doing there. At that point, after calling super.init , the self exists, and you can use it (you are calling return self , too, so why would other references to self be wrong?).