EXC_BAD_ACCESS when initializing Dictionary of CurrentValueSubject in Swift - ios

Question

I am trying to create a class that executes data loading once and returns the data to all callers of the method while the data was loading to not perform the data loading for the same item (identifier) more than once. The issue I am having is that it seems to crash on the first initialization of CurrentValueSubject for an identifier. This only happens if the downloadStuff returns an Error I have no idea what's wrong. Here is a reproduction of the issue.
Class that does the synchronization:
class FetchSynchronizer<T, ItemIdentifier: Hashable> {
typealias CustomParams = (isFirstLoad: Bool, result: Result<T, Error>)
enum FetchCondition {
// executes data fetching only once
case executeFetchOnlyOnce
// re-executes fetch if request failed
case retryOnlyIfFailure
// always executes fetch even if response is cached
case noDataCache
// custom condition
case custom((CustomParams) -> Bool)
}
struct LoadingState<T> {
let result: Result<T, Error>
let isLoading: Bool
init(result: Result<T, Error>? = nil, isLoading: Bool = false) {
self.result = result ?? .failure(NoResultsError())
self.isLoading = isLoading
}
}
private var cancellables = Set<AnyCancellable>()
private var isLoading: [ItemIdentifier: CurrentValueSubject<LoadingState<T>, Never>] = [:]
func startLoading(identifier: ItemIdentifier,
fetchCondition: FetchCondition = .executeFetchOnlyOnce,
loaderMethod: #escaping () async -> Result<T, Error>) async -> Result<T, Error> {
// initialize loading tracker for identifier on first execution
var isFirstExecution = false
if isLoading[identifier] == nil {
print("----0")
isLoading[identifier] = CurrentValueSubject<LoadingState<T>, Never>(LoadingState<T>())
isFirstExecution = true
}
guard let currentIsLoading = isLoading[identifier] else {
assertionFailure("Should never be nil because it's set above")
return .failure(NoResultsError())
}
if currentIsLoading.value.isLoading {
// loading in progress, wait for finish and call pending callbacks
return await withCheckedContinuation { continuation in
currentIsLoading.filter { !$0.isLoading }.sink { currentIsLoading in
continuation.resume(returning: currentIsLoading.result)
}.store(in: &cancellables)
}
} else {
// no fetching in progress, check if it can be executed
let shouldFetchData: Bool
switch fetchCondition {
case .executeFetchOnlyOnce:
// first execution -> fetch data
shouldFetchData = isFirstExecution
case .retryOnlyIfFailure:
// no cached data -> fetch data
switch currentIsLoading.value.result {
case .success:
shouldFetchData = false
case .failure:
shouldFetchData = true
}
case .noDataCache:
// always fetch
shouldFetchData = true
case .custom(let completion):
shouldFetchData = completion((isFirstLoad: isFirstExecution,
result: currentIsLoading.value.result))
}
if shouldFetchData {
currentIsLoading.send(LoadingState(isLoading: true))
// fetch data
return await withCheckedContinuation { continuation in
Task {
// execute loader method
let result = await loaderMethod()
let state = LoadingState(result: result,
isLoading: false)
currentIsLoading.send(state)
continuation.resume(returning: result)
}
}
} else {
// use existing data
return currentIsLoading.value.result
}
}
}
}
Example usage:
class Executer {
let fetchSynchronizer = FetchSynchronizer<Data?, String>()
func downloadStuff() async -> Result<Data?, Error> {
await fetchSynchronizer.startLoading(identifier: "1") {
return await withCheckedContinuation { continuation in
sleep(UInt32.random(in: 1...3))
print("-------request")
continuation.resume(returning: .failure(NSError() as Error))
}
}
}
init() {
start()
}
func start() {
Task {
await downloadStuff()
print("-----3")
}
DispatchQueue.global(qos: .utility).async {
Task {
await self.downloadStuff()
print("-----2")
}
}
DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
Task {
await self.downloadStuff()
print("-----1")
}
}
}
}
Start the execution:
Executer()
Crashes at
isLoading[identifier] = CurrentValueSubject<LoadingState<T>, Never>(LoadingState<T>())
Any guidance would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Swift Dictionary is not thread-safe.
You need to make sure it is being accessed from only one thread (i.e queue) or using locks.
EDIT - another solution suggested by #Bogdan the question writer is to make the class an actor class which the concurrency safety is taken care of by the compiler!
By dispatching to a global queue, you increase the chance that two threads will try and write into the dictionary “at the same time” which probably causes the crash
Take a look at these examples.
How to implement a Thread Safe HashTable (PhoneBook) Data Structure in Swift?
https://github.com/iThink32/Thread-Safe-Dictionary/blob/main/ThreadSafeDictionary.swift