NSMutableArray not working properly...(count shouldn't be returning zero!)

NSMutableArray count is returning zero after adding objects to it, its been an hour of hacking away trying to figure out why, and I'm still stuck, so that brings me here.

Any ideas based off the following code, what the problem is?

the object 'search' is a custom class defined in the header set as a pointer, with retain, nonatomic attributes.

   - (NSMutableArray *) populateArrayFromPlist{
 NSLog(@"Populate Array from PList");
 NSDictionary *dictionary;
 // read "foo.plist" from application bundle
 NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath];
 开发者_开发技巧NSString *finalPath = [path stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"asearch.plist"];
 dictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:finalPath];

 for (id key in dictionary)
 {
  search = [[ASearch alloc] init];



  [dictionary valueForKey:key];

  [search setID:[[dictionary valueForKey:key] intValue] ];

  //[[search searchString] initWithString: key];

  search.searchString = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString: key];

  if (search == nil) {
   printf("Let me know now\n\n\n\n");
  }

  NSLog(@"%@", [search searchString]);

  NSLog(@"Setting string Value: %s\n", [key cString]);
  NSLog(@"Setting ID Value: %i\n", [[dictionary valueForKey:key] intValue]);

  //NSLog(@"aSearchArray count == %i", [[aSearchArray count] intValue]);
  [aSearchArray addObject:search];
  NSLog(@"aSearchArray count == %i", [aSearchArray count] );

aSearchArray is a nil object that is the only reason why you are getting count as zero.

For more confirmation just create a new local array and try to add your object to it. You will get a proper count