Strong and Weak References
We have said that anytime a pointer variable points to an object, that object has an owner and will stay alive. This is known as a strong reference.
A variable can optionally not take ownership of an object that it points to. A variable that does not take ownership of an object is known as a weak reference.
A weak reference is useful for preventing a problem called a strong reference cycle (also known as a retain cycle.) A strong reference cycle occurs when two or more objects have strong references to each other. This is bad news. When two objects own each other, they can never be destroyed by ARC. Even if every other object in the application releases ownership of these objects, these objects (and ...
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