This is no longer true when using ARC. See the "Stack Variables Are Initialized with nil" section of http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#releasenotes/Object

This is no longer true when using ARC. See the "Stack Variables Are Initialized with nil" section of http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#releasenotes/ObjectiveC/RN-TransitioningToARC/Introduction/Introduction.html http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#releasenotes/Objecti... "Using ARC, strong, weak, and autoreleasing stack variables are now implicitly initialized with nil." This doesn't affect plain C variables, but it would solve the issue you had above.