comparison - Is it possible to compare two Objective-C blocks by content?

Question

float pi = 3.14;
float (^piSquare)(void) = ^(void){ return pi * pi; };
float (^piSquare2)(void) = ^(void){ return pi * pi; };

[piSquare isEqualTo: piSquare2]; // -> want it to behave like -isEqualToString...

Answer 1

To expand on Laurent's answer.

A Block is a combination of implementation and data. For two blocks to be equal, they would need to have both the exact same implementation and have captured the exact same data. Comparison, thus, requires comparing both the implementation and the data.

One might think comparing the implementation would be easy. It actually isn't because of the way the compiler's optimizer works.

While comparing simple data is fairly straightforward, blocks can capture objects-- including C++ objects (which might actually work someday)-- and comparison may or may not need to take that into account. A naive implementation would simply do a byte level comparison of the captured contents. However, one might also desire to test equality of objects using the object level comparators.

Then there is the issue of __block variables. A block, itself, doesn't actually have any metadata related to __block captured variables as it doesn't need it to fulfill the requirements of said variables. Thus, comparison couldn't compare __block values without significantly changing compiler codegen.

All of this is to say that, no, it isn't currently possible to compare blocks and to outline some of the reasons why. If you feel that this would be useful, file a bug via http://bugreport.apple.com/ and provide a use case.