I am learning Swift, I saw some code from a project like following:
struct ServiceType {
init(_ value: UInt)
var value: UInt
}
var External: ServiceType { get }
var Internal: ServiceType { get }
var Normal: ServiceType { get }
I understand that the above code created three computed properties External, Internal & Normal all with type ServiceType.
What I want to ask are:
Why the struct declaration declare a init() ? I didn't see this when I was reading a Swift programming book.
What does it mean to have an underscore _ followed by a space before value: UInt in the init(_ value: UInt) ?
Is it so that struct has a value property by default in Swift? The above code just explicitly set the type of value to UInt?
What does the empty get mean in each property? What value it returns?
Does the OS randomly assign UInt value to each property's value?
1.
A struct gets a default initializer if it doesn't provide one on its own:
struct ServiceType {
var value: UInt
}
// default initialize with an specified parameter name "value" (called external name)
let service = ServiceType(value: 4)
In this case the struct provides an initializer so you don't get the default one.
2.
The underscore says that you don't have an external name:
let service = ServiceType(4)
Replacing the underscore with a different name the name is now the external name:
struct ServiceType {
init(aval value: UInt)
var value: UInt
}
let service = ServiceType(aval: 4)
3.
If I understand you right structs in general don't have a value property by default and in this case a value property is declared to be of type Uint. var value = 0 would be inferred to be of type Int.
4.
If you have seen this code in a protocol { get } means that it only returns a value and does not set one ({ get set }).
The return value of these computed properties are all of type ServiceType.
5.
In Swift you don't get default values for Ints, Doubles, ... as in other languages (mostly 0) except for Optionals which are nil by default. So you have to make sure that the value is initialized before using it otherwise the compiler will complain.
All of this gets pretty clear if you read the initialization chapter of the Swift book.
Related
In the documentation for #dynamicMemberLookup it says,
Apply this attribute to a class, structure, enumeration, or protocol to enable members to be looked up by name at runtime.
If I'm not mistaken, instance methods are considered members of a struct / class. However, when I try to call a function dynamically I get an error saying:
Dynamic key path member lookup cannot refer to instance method foo()
To reproduce the problem:
struct Person {
var name: String
var age: Int
func greet() {
print("hello, my name is \(name)")
}
}
#dynamicMemberLookup
struct Wrapper {
var value: Person
subscript<T>(dynamicMember keypath: KeyPath<Person, T>) -> T {
value[keyPath: keypath]
}
}
let person = Person(name: "John Doe", age: 21)
let wrapper = Wrapper(value: person)
wrapper.greet() // << Error: Dynamic key path member lookup cannot refer to instance method `greet()`
// Or
let function = wrapper.greet // << Error: Dynamic key path member lookup cannot refer to instance method `greet()`
function()
How can I dynamically call greet() using #dynamicMemberLookup? Is there any way to achieve what I'm trying to do?
Thanks in advance!
No, dynamicMemberLookup does not work for methods. As the signature of the subscript suggests, it only works for things that can be represented as a KeyPath. Method calls cannot be part of a key path. :(
Key-Path Expression
A key-path expression refers to a property or subscript of a type.
The path consists of property names, subscripts, optional-chaining
expressions, and forced unwrapping expressions. Each of these key-path
components can be repeated as many times as needed, in any order.
At compile time, a key-path expression is replaced by an instance of
the KeyPath class.
I suspect the reason why it is called "dynamic member lookup" is because it also works with subscripts. The alternative of dynamicPropertyOrSubscriptLookup is rather a mouthful isn't it?
One rather hacky fix would be to change greet into a computed property:
var greet: () -> Void { {
print("hello, my name is \(name)")
} }
If greet has had parameters, you could also change it into a subscript, but I think that is an even uglier solution.
I want to use variable names in dot notation in Swift.
I'm wrestling with trying to make sense of JSON in Swift, and having a really hard time doing things that are so easy in JS (like cycling through objects, etc).
I have variables of custom types:
var questionConfiguration: QuestionConfiguration
var priorityConfiguration: PriorityConfiguration
Each of these types has an attribute, displayOrder, I want to access this dynamically. I have tried various things, including the following (i is a variable of type Int):
var configs = [self.questionConfiguration, self.priorityConfiguration]
print([configs[i]].displayOrder)
var configs = ["questionConfiguration", "priorityConfiguration"]
print([configs[i]].displayOrder)
How can I achieve this?
EDIT:
struct QuestionConfiguration: Codable {
var displayOrder: Int
}
struct PriorityConfiguration: Codable {
var displayOrder: Int
}
You can create a protocol for same property name then you can access it easily
protocol SameProp {
var displayOrder: Int {get set}
}
class QuestionConfiguration : SameProp {
var displayOrder : Int = 4
}
class PriorityConfiguration : SameProp {
var displayOrder : Int = 6
}
var questionConfiguration: QuestionConfiguration = QuestionConfiguration()
var priorityConfiguration: PriorityConfiguration = PriorityConfiguration()
var configs = [questionConfiguration, priorityConfiguration] as [SameProp]
for elements in configs{
print(elements.displayOrder) // will print 4 and 6
}
Swift is very particular about data types and I suspect you are experiencing challenges because of it.
When you do this:
var configs = [self.questionConfiguration, self.priorityConfiguration]
In Swift, all the elements in an array have to have the same type. You've not given Swift any hints about what types this array should contain so the compiler has to infer a type. QuestionConfiguration and PriorityConfiguration are two different types. So the compiler is likely to infer that configs is of type [Any] also called Array<Any>.
Then you try something like this:
configs[i].displayOrder (not sure why your code has the extra brackets)
But configs[i] is inferred to be of type Any and that type doesn't have a displayOrder property so the compiler complains.
You need to tell the compiler that these types share some properties. One way to do that would be to add a protocol that describes what they share:
protocol DisplayOrderable {
var displayOrder: Int { get }
}
struct QuestionConfiguration: DisplayOrderable, Codable {
var displayOrder: Int
}
struct PriorityConfiguration: DisplayOrderable, Codable {
var displayOrder: Int
}
then you could use
var configs: [any DisplayOrderable] = [self.questionConfiguration, self.priorityConfiguration]
And configs[i].displayOrder should work.
I am trying to create a new instance of a codable struct
#State private var parcel = Parcel()
but I'm getting this error:
Missing argument for parameter 'from' in call
Insert 'from: <#Decoder#>'
struct Parcel: Codable {
var created_at: String
var height: Double
var id: String
var length: Double
var mode: String?
var object: String
var predefined_package: String?
var updated_at: String?
var weight: Double
var width: Double
}
Every object in Swift needs an initializer: some code to set up the object when it is first created. If your object is an instance of a class, the initializer needs to be explicitly defined by you. However if the object is an instance of a struct, Swift implicitly defines an initializer. For example, this struct
struct Foo {
let bar: Int
}
implicitly gets an initializer that looks like this
init(bar: Int) {
self.bar = bar
}
Initializers can also be implicitly created through protocol extensions. That means if your struct inherits a protocol (such as Codable), the protocol can define additional initializers for you. For this simple example, Codable would add something like this
init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
// decode a key value pair with name "bar" and an Int value using decoder
let decodedBar = try ...
self.init(bar: decodedBar)
}
In your case, when you write parcel = Parcel() you are calling this kind of initializer
init() {
// initialize somehow with no input!
}
But you never defined anything like that! The compiler is suggesting that you call the initalizer you got from Codable since it's a close match, but that's probably not what you want either.
You can either define that missing initializer, or define default values for all of your struct's members. If you do that, the implicit initializer defined by Swift will have no arguments, making your code valid. For example
struct Foo {
let bar: Int = 3
}
let f = Foo() // now this is valid, implicit init has no arguments
By default, structs create an initialiser behind the scenes for every non-optional property that you declare. So by simply creating an instance of the struct you need to include all non-optional values it requires. If you don’t want to add the values when you initialise it, change them to vars and make them optional (add ? to the end).
Sorry if the title is rather confusing, but I'm curious to know the difference between these two lines:
var title = String()
var title: String
Is one being initialized and one only be declared? Which is more correct?
For example, if I have a struct should I use one of the other?
So the reason I ask this is because I'm learning about how to grab some JSON from a url and then display it in my app. One of the new ways of doing so is using Decodable. So, I have a struct in a model class like so:
struct Videos: Decodable {
var title = String()
var number_of_views : Int
var thumbnail_image_name: String
var channel: Channel
var duration: Int
}
In another class I have this:
URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url){(data,response,error) in
if(error != nil){
print(error!)
return
}
guard let data = data else { return }
do{
self.Videos2 = try JSONDecoder().decode([Videos].self, from: data)
//self.collectionView?.reloadData()
}catch let jsonErr{
print(jsonErr)
}
}.resume()
So, should I declare or initialize the variables in my struct? I'm assuming I should just declare them like so:
var title: String?
Would that be the correct syntax in my struct?
UPDATE:
I understand this question was more broad then I originally proposed it to be. I'm sorry about that, but thank you so much for all your great answers that clarified a lot up for me.
The difference is that : defines the type of your variable, whereas = assigns an actual value to the variable.
So:
var title = String()
This calls the initializer of the String type, creating a new String instance. It then assigns this value to title. The type of title is inferred to be String because you're assigning an object of type String to it; however, you could also write this line explicitly as:
var title: String = String()
This would mean you are declaring a title variable of type String, and assigning a new String to it.
var title: String
This simply says you're defining a variable of type String. However, you are not assigning a value to it. You will need to assign something to this variable before you use it, or you will get a compile error (and if this is a property rather than just a variable, you'll need to assign it before you get to the end of your type's init() method, unless it's optional with ? after it, in which case it gets implicitly initialized to nil).
EDIT: For your example, I'd probably declare all the variables using let and :, assuming that your JSON provides values for all of those properties. The initializer generated by Decodable should then set all the properties when you create the object. So, something like:
struct Videos: Decodable {
let title: String
let number_of_views : Int
let thumbnail_image_name: String
let channel: Int
let duration: Int
}
This initializes a value
var title = String()
This declares a value but does not initialize it
var title: String
If you attempt to use the latter, such as print(title), you will get a compiler error stating Variable 'title' used before being initialized
It does not matter whether the value is a class or a struct.
The = operator is the assignment operator, it assigns a value to the object on the left of the =
Typically, class or struct properties are declared but not initialized until the init() is called. A simple class might be
class MyClass {
let myProperty: String
init(aString: String) {
self.myProperty = aString
}
}
Whereas inside the scope of a function you may declare a local variable that only lives inside the scope of the function.
func doSomethingToAString(aString: String) -> String {
let extraString = "Something"
let amendedString = aString + extraString
return amendedString
}
In your specific example, the struct synthesizes an initializer that will allow you to initialize the struct with all the values needed to fill your properties. The initializer generated by Decodable should then set all the properties when you create a Videos struct, you will do it something like:
let aVideos = Videos(title: "My Title", number_of_views: 0, thumbnail_image_name: "ImageName", channel: Channel(), duration: 10)
Is one being initialized and one only be declared?
Yes, meaning that the declared cannot be used. If you tried to set a value for it, you would get a compile-time error:
variable 'title' passed by reference before being initialized
Which is more correct?
There is no rule of thumb to determine which is more correct, that would be depends on is there a need to initialize title directly.
On another hand, when it comes to declare properties for a class, saying var title = String() means that you are give title an initial value ("") which means that you are able to create an instance of this class directly, example:
class Foo {
var title = String()
}
let myFoo = Foo()
However, if title declared as var title: String, you will have to implement the init for Foo:
class Foo {
var title: String
init(title: String) {
self.title = title
}
}
let myFoo = Foo(title: "")
Also, you have an option to declare it as lazy:
lazy var title = String()
which means:
A lazy stored property is a property whose initial value is not
calculated until the first time it is used. You indicate a lazy stored
property by writing the lazy modifier before its declaration.
Properties - Lazy Stored Properties
I had some older Swift code that used to compile and work where I was using the .append to build out a data structure dynamically. After upgrading to a few compiler versions newer I am getting the dreaded "Extra Argument ' ' in call" error. I reduced the code down to this:
struct EHSearch {
let EHcategory : String = ""
let EHname : String = ""
}
var myEHSearch = [EHSearch]()
// Call to dynamically append the results
// Extra argument: 'EHcategory' in call
myEHSearch.append(EHSearch(EHcategory: "Food", EHname: "Joes Crab Shack"))
I can't see anything so far in searching on what has changed to cause this one so seeking guidance here.
Because you have let in your struct.
Define your structure like this:
struct EHSearch {
var EHcategory : String = ""
var EHname : String = ""
}
If you have constants in your struct, you can not provide them initial value while creating new structure instances. The automatically-generated member-wise initializer doesn't accept let members as parameters of the initializer of struct.
It depends on your intentions with the struct's properties. Do you want them to be mutable or not?
If yes, then #sasquatch's answer will do.
If not, then you need to ensure a value is assigned to them only once. As you already do that in the struct declaration (the default values), you can't assign new values to them. But being a struct, they don't need to have default values - moreover, struct automatically receive a memberwise initializer. https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Swift/Conceptual/Swift_Programming_Language/Initialization.html
So here is the variant for immutable properties:
struct EHSearch {
let EHcategory : String
let EHname : String
}
var myEHSearch = [EHSearch]()
// Call to dynamically append the results
// Extra argument: 'EHcategory' in call
myEHSearch.append(EHSearch(EHcategory: "Food", EHname: "Joes Crab Shack"))
The "Extra Argument" error you're seeing is because the compiler already has values for the properties so it doesn't expect any new ones. Here is the "middle" way - one property has a default value whilst the other doesn't - which should make it clearer:
struct EHSearch {
let EHcategory : String = ""
let EHname : String
}
var myEHSearch = [EHSearch]()
// Call to dynamically append the results
// Extra argument: 'EHcategory' in call
myEHSearch.append(EHSearch(EHname: "Joes Crab Shack"))