Add a generic delegate to a base class in Swift - ios

Question

Ideally, I want to create a BaseViewController class that takes in a protocol type (of a delegate) and have a weak variable as the delegate. Something like this:
class BaseViewController<Delegate: AnyObject> {
weak var delegate: Delegate?
init(delegate: Delegate) {
self.delegate = delegate
super.init(...)
}
}
And then inherit from a view controller like so:
protocol MyDelegate: AnyObject {
func funcA()
func funcB()
}
class SomeViewController: BaseViewController<MyDelegate> {
func doSomething() {
delegate?.funcA()
}
}
This doesn't work as the compiler complains:
'BaseViewController' requires that 'MyDelegate' be a class type
How can I work this around to achieve what I need?
Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

Thats because in swift protocols doesn't confirm to them selves, you can't use "MyProtocol" as concrete type confirming to protocol "MyDelegate"
What you can rather do is
protocol MyDelegate: AnyObject {
func funcA()
func funcB()
}
class BaseViewController<Delegate: MyDelegate> {
weak var delegate: Delegate?
init(delegate: Delegate) {
self.delegate = delegate
super.init(...)
//keeping OPs code as is
}
}
class SomeOtherDelegateClass: MyDelegate {
func funcA() {
//some code here
}
func funcB() {
//some code here
}
}
class SomeViewController: BaseViewController<SomeOtherDelegateClass> {
func doSomething() {
self.delegate?.funcA()
}
}
EDIT 1:
As OP mentioned in comment, he is trying to introduce a generic property in BaseViewController that will simply hold a weak reference to any instance whose class is decided/declared by Child classes of BaseViewController using generics, I am simplifying the above answer a bit
Try this
protocol MyDelegate {
func funcA()
func funcB()
}
class BaseViewController<Delegate> where Delegate: AnyObject {
weak var delegate: Delegate?
init(delegate: Delegate) {
self.delegate = delegate
super.init(...)
//keeping OPs code as is
}
}
class SomeOtherDelegateClass: MyDelegate {
func funcA() {
//some code here
}
func funcB() {
//some code here
}
}
class SomeViewController: BaseViewController<SomeOtherDelegateClass> {
func doSomething() {
self.delegate?.funcA()
}
}
protocol MyDelegate2 {
func funcABCD()
}
class SomeOtherDelegateClass2: MyDelegate2 {
func funcABCD() {
//some code here
}
}
class SomeViewController2: BaseViewController<SomeOtherDelegateClass2> {
func doSomething() {
self.delegate?.funcABCD()
}
}
TBH, I really dont see much of benefit of this design! Probably you need to revisit the code structure and see if you can come up with better code structure :)

Answer 2

You should set your delegate as a constraint for the generic type T in BaseViewController:
protocol MyDelegate: AnyObject {
func funcA()
func funcB()
}
class Delegated1: MyDelegate {
func funcA() { print("A1") }
func funcB() {}
}
class Delegated2: MyDelegate {
func funcA() { print("A2") }
func funcB() {}
}
class BaseViewController<T: MyDelegate>: UIViewController {
var delegate: T?
func doSomething() {
delegate?.funcA()
}
}
class SomeViewController1: BaseViewController<Delegated1> {}
class SomeViewController2: BaseViewController<Delegated2> {}
class TestClass {
let viewController1: SomeViewController1 = {
let viewController = SomeViewController1(nibName: nil, bundle: nil)
viewController.delegate = .init()
return viewController
}()
let viewController2: SomeViewController2 = {
let viewController = SomeViewController2(nibName: nil, bundle: nil)
viewController.delegate = .init()
return viewController
}()
// prints:
// A1
// A2
func myFunc() {
viewController1.doSomething()
viewController2.doSomething()
}
}