Apple’s documentation: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/CoreFoundation/Reference/CFStringRef/Reference/reference.html —-

Thanks to TollFreeBridging a CFStringRef is equivalent to an NSString*

// Casting a CFStringRef to an NSString object: CFStringRef cfString; NSString nsString = (NSString)cfString;

// Casting an NSString object pointer to a CFStringRef: NSString *nsString; CFStringRef cfString = (CFStringRef)nsString;

But don’t forget to call CFRelease on CFStringRef**s created using CoreFoundation methods when you’re done with it! eg. CFStringCreate(…) An example is when converting PascalString’s to NSString’s, as only CoreFoundation methods exist to do so.