instancetype is a relative new keyword in Objective-C language. Besides its general usage scenarios, it can be leveraged for safe casting. The approach is simply a category to NSObject:

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@interface NSObject (OAUtils)
+ (instancetype)oa_cast:(id)any;
+ (instancetype)oa_cast:(id)any warnOnFailure:(BOOL)warnOnFailure;
@end

@implementation NSObject (OAUtils)
+ (instancetype)oa_cast:(id)any
{
    return [self oa_cast:any warnOnFailure:NO];
}

+ (instancetype)oa_cast:(id)any warnOnFailure:(BOOL)warnOnFailure
{
    if (any)
    {
        if ([any isKindOfClass:[self class]])
            return any;
        else if (warnOnFailure)
            NSLog(@"Can't cast %@ to type %@", any, NSStringFromClass([self class]));
    }
    
    return nil;
}

For example, it’s common to store NSNull inside an NSMutableArray to indicate nil value actually. Then accessing the array normally requires extra type checking to insure NSNull is not used accidentally, which leads to crash at runtime. Using oa_cast: would make codes easier to write:

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NSMutableArray * images = [NSMutableArray array];
[images addObject:[UIImage imageNamed:@"icon1.png"]];
[images addObject:[NSNull null]];
//...

UIImageView * secondImageView = ...;
secondImageView.image = [UIImage oa_cast:images[1]];

Happy coding!