Hands-On Design Patterns with Swift

Let's start with an example of a simple class that represents a Point in an x, y coordinate system (Cartesian). Consider the following:

class Point {
    var x: Double
    var y: Double

    init(x: Double, y: Double) {
        self.x = x
        self.y = y
    }
}

Now, let's define a simple translate function that will mutate the x and y properties of the point objects by adding dx and dy to x and y, respectively:

func translate(point : Point, dx : Double, dy : Double) {
 point.x += dx
 point.y += dy
}

Now, we can create a point instance with, for example, an initial value of 0.0, and translate it to the position 1.0:

let point = Point(x: 0.0, y: 0.0)
translate(point: point, dx: 1.0, dy: 1.0)
point.x == 1.0
point.y == 1.0

Because classes follow reference semantics, only a reference to the point object is passed to the translate function; x and y are defined as var, and all of this code is valid.

Now, let's try to port our Point class into a struct. Consider the following:

struct Point {
    var x: Double
    var y: Double
}

We have defined a simple struct; as you should notice, there's no need to add a constructor, as the compiler will synthesize it for us:

let point = Point(x: 0.0, y: 0.0)
translate(point: point, dx: 1.0, dy: 1.0)

If we keep the original implementation, our program won't compile. Point is a value type now, and it's forbidden to mutate a value inside of a function! We need to add the inout keyword to indicate that this function will mutate the contents of the value that is passed. When the function returns, the value will be assigned back to the original variable.

With those changes complete, we also need to change our call to indicate that our point variable can be modified by our translate function with the & (ampersand) character. We also need to mark our point as var; otherwise, the inout function cannot modify its contents:

func translate(point: inout Point, dx : Double, dy : Double) {
    point.x += dx
    point.y += dy
}

var point = Point(x: 0.0, y: 0.0)
translate(&point, dx: 1.0, dy: 1.0)
point.x == 1.0 // true
point.y == 1.0 // true

We've successfully ported this function, but we can do better.

With structs, you will often see that this pattern is cumbersome. We may want the translate function to return a mutated copy of the value we passed in, as follows:

func translate(point: Point, dx : Double, dy : Double) -> Point {
    var point = point
    translate(point: &point, dx : dx, dy : dy)
    return point
}

We'll be able to use the previously defined function with the following code:

let point = Point(x: 0.0, y: 0.0)
let translatedPoint = translate(point, dx: 1.0, dy: 1.0)
point.x == 0.0
point.y == 0.0
translatedPoint.x == 1.0
translatedPoint.y == 1.0

With this new implementation, we're not mutating the value anymore, but the translate function is always returning a new Point value. This has many benefits, including the ability to chain such calls together. Let's add a method to our Point struct:

extension Point {
    func translating(dx: Double, dy: Double) -> Point {
        return translate(point: self, dx: dx, dy: dy)
    }
}

Using our newly crafted extension, we can easily create new Point values and translate them:

let point = Point(x: 0.0, y: 0.0)
    .translating(dx : 5.0, dy : 2.0)
    .translating(dx : 2.0, dy : 3.0)
point.x == 7.0
point.y == 5.0

Let's say you're building a smart light remote control; you can easily represent the state of this light with the following enum:

enum State {
    case on
    case off
}

let anOnLight = State.on

This is a very simple example, and we could have used a Boolean value, but with the enum, we set ourselves up for expansion.

Now, we may want to add a method to this State enumeration. After all, it's very common to just toggle the switch on and off without thinking:

extension State {
    mutating func toggle() {
        self = self == .off ? .on : .off
    }
}

var state: State = .on
state.toggle()
state == .off // true

As in the previous section, we can just extend the State enum to add the toggle functionality. Enums follow value semantics; therefore, we have to mark the toggle method as mutating.

Enums can also contain associated values. In our scenario, we can leverage this to represent a dimmer. A dimmer changes the intensity of the light, so we can represent it with a third member-the dimmed member:

enum State: Equatable {
    case on
    case off
    case dimmed(value: Double)
}

You may have noticed that we needed to add the Equatable conformance. This is required, as otherwise, the compiler can't synthesize equality anymore without our hint. This implementation works, but we lack a few things. First, not all Double values are valid; we'd probably like to keep these in a reasonable span (between 0 and 1, for example). But perhaps not all of our lights support such values between 0 and 1. Others may want to support between 0 and a 100 or integers between 0 and 255.

In the following example, we will build a fully generic light:

enum State<T>: Equatable where T: Equatable {
    case on
    case off
    case dimmed(T)
}

struct Bits8Dimming: Equatable {
    let value: Int
    init(_ value: Int) {
        assert(value > 0 && value < 256)
        self.value = value
    }
}

struct ZeroOneDimming: Equatable {
    let value: Double
    init(_ value: Double) {
        assert(value > 0 && value < 1)
        self.value = value
    }
}

let nostalgiaState: State<Bits8Dimming> = .dimmed(.init(10))
let otherState: State<ZeroOneDimming> = .dimmed(.init(0.4))

The dim type is now specified as a part of the State type. This gives us a lot of flexibility, as well as validation. Wrapping the value into a small struct adds very little overhead in terms of performance, and allows us to ensure that the values are sane before being set into our enum. 

A raw type is a base type for all enumeration members; in our example, we can hardcode presets for our dimming, as follows:

enum LightLevel: String {
    case quarter
    case half
    case threequarters
}

let state: State<LightLevel> = .dimmed(.half)

Thanks to the generic implementation and the fact that String is equatable, we can use this raw value in our dimmed state.

With the LightLevel enum, which has a raw type of String, the compiler will use the member name as the underlying raw value:

LightLevel.half.rawValue == “half” // == true

You can override these by specifying them, as follows:

enum LightLevel: String {
    case quarter = “1/4”
    case half = “1/2”
    case threequarters = “3/4”
}

When using Int as a raw type, the underlying raw values will follow the order of the cases:

enum Level: Int {
    case base // == 0
    case more // == 1
    case high = 100
    case higher // == 101
}

With our final case, let's look at how to interpret the current state of the light:

switch state {
case .on:
    doSomething()
case .off:
    doSomething()
case .dimmed(let value):
    switch value {
    case .quarter:
        doSomething()
    case .half:
        doSomething()
    case .threeQuarters:
        doSomething()
    }
}

The switch statement in Swift is very different from the one in Objective-C. First, the cases do not fall through each other, so there's no need to add the break statement after each case.

If you want multiple cases to be handled with the same code, you can use the following strategy:

switch state {
case .on, .off:
    doSomething()
default:
    break
}

Falling through is somehow not encouraged in Swift, so always try to adapt your code in order not to leverage this. If you can't avoid it, the following code shows how it should be implemented:

switch state {
case .off:
    doSomethingOff()
    fallthrough
case .on:
    doSomething()
default:
    break
}

If state is off, both doSomethingOff and doSomething will be called. If state is on, only doSomething will be called.

Functions and closures don't have to be defined at the top level. This can be unintuitive, when coming from languages such as Objective-C and Java. Swift, like JavaScript, lets you define functions and closures anywhere in your code. Functions can also return functions. This mechanism is known as currying.

Imagine that you want to create a logger method that will print a single argument, but it will always pretend to be a string to find it easily in your logs.

Let's start with the following basic implementation:

private let PREFIX = ‘MyPrefix'

private func log(_ value: String) {
    print(PREFIX + “ “ + value)
}

class MyClass {
    func doSomething() {
        log(“before”)
        /* complex code */
        log(“after”)
    }
}

While this works properly in the scope of a simple class, if you need to reuse the log method or change the internal implementation, this will lead to a lot of duplication.

You can use currying to overcome that issue, as follows:

func logger(prefix: String) -> (String) ->  Void {
    func log(value: String) {
        print(prefix + “ “ + value)
    }
    return log
}

let log = logger(prefix: “MyClass”)
log(“before”)
// do something
log(“after”)

// console:
MyClass before
MyClass after

Functions and closures can capture the current scope, which means all of the declared variables outside of the function or closure definition, such as local variables or self. In the case of self, you can inadvertently extended the lifetime of your objects and leak memory:

class MyClass {
    var running = false
    func run() {
        running = true
        DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 10) {
            self.running = false
        }
    }
}

var instance: MyClass? = MyClass()
instance?.run()
instance = nil

Can you spot the potential issue in this code?

Depending on the use case, you may want instance to be destroyed when it is not referenced by any owner. In our case, we'll probably cause a memory leak, as the dispatch block is referencing self without any memory management qualifier.

Swift provides us with two keywords that indicate how we want to extend the lifetime of an object in a closure. While both prevent creating retain cycles, they are fundamentally different.

Using weak will wrap the captured value inside of an optional, indicating that the instance may have been deallocated before the closure was executed:

class MyClass {
    var running = false
    func run() {
        running = true
        DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 10) { [weak self] in
            self?.running = false
        }
    }
}

var instance: MyClass? = MyClass()
instance?.run()
instance = nil

In this execution, instance will immediately be deallocated when set to nil.

Using unowned indicates that the variable won't be owned by the block. Another mechanism should be responsible for ensuring that the lifetime of the captured object is properly extended until the block is executed:

class MyClass {
    var running = false
    func run() {
        running = true
        DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 10) { [unowned self] in
            self.running = false
        }
    }
}

var instance: MyClass? = MyClass()
instance?.run()
instance = nil

In this case, your program will crash when the block is executing, because the self variable will be deallocated upon the execution of the block:

Fatal error: Attempted to read an unowned reference but object 0x7f80bc75a4e0 was already deallocated

You declare protocols using the protocol keyword, as follows:

protocol Toggling {
    mutating func toggle()
}

Now that this protocol has been declared, any time that you declare a type conforming to Toggling, you'll be required to implement a mutating toggle() function.

You can use protocols in your type declarations, method declarations, or variable declarations. While it is technically possible to use protocols as interfaces for your objects or structs, that is usually not how they are used in Swift. Often, you will find yourself conforming to protocols when declaring your custom types or later in your code base, part of extending your existing type to bring additional functionality to it. 

We have just declared this new toggling protocol. If we go back to the previous section about enums, you may remember that the State enum had a toggle() method. We can now declare that our enum, State, conforms to Toggling. As mentioned previously, we have many ways to declare our conformance. 

enum State: Int, Toggling {
    case off = 0
    case on

    mutating func toggle() {
        self = self == .on ? .off : .on
    }
}

var state: State = .on
state.toggle()
assert(state == .off)

internal extensionBool: Toggling {
mutatingfunc toggle() {
self = !self
}
}

var isReady = false
isReady.toggle()
assert(isReady)

With protocol extensions, it is possible to provide an implementation for the required methods, without letting the conforming types provide that implementation.

We have updated the Toggling protocol with an additional required member: isActive. With the protocol extension, we can declare a default implementation for our types, Bool and State. We can also provide a default implementation for any other type that would choose to conform to the Toggling protocol:

protocol Toggling {
    mutating func toggle()
    var isActive: Bool { get }
}

extensionTogglingwhereSelf == Bool {
var isActive: Bool {
        returnself
    }
}

extensionTogglingwhereSelf == State {
    var isActive: Bool {
returnself == .on
}
}

protocol Adder {
func add(value: Int) -> Int
func remove(value: Int) -> Int
}

extensionAdder {
func remove(value: Int) -> Int {
returnadd(value: -value)
    }
}

Tuples are used to represent a group of values as a single value. Tuples cannot conform to protocols, nor can they inherit. They cannot declare functions in the same way that we can declare a function on a struct or a class. They may look limited, but they have their place as first-class types in the language.

let origin = (0.0, 0.0)

let point = (x: 10.0, y: 10.0)

let size = (width: 200, height: 400)
let (w, h) = size
let (width, _) = size

func distance(_ a: (Double, Double), _ b: (Double, Double)) -> Double {
returnsqrt(pow(b.0 - a.0, 2) + pow(b.1 - a.1, 2))
}
distance(point, origin) == 5.0

func slope(_ a: (x: Double, y: Double),_ b: (x: Double, y: Double)) -> Double {
return (b.y - a.y) / (b.x - a.x)
}

slope((10, 10), (x: 1, y: 1)) == 1

Type aliases are a simple addition to the language; they let you reference simple or complex types by an alias. They support all declarations that you can imagine, from the simplest to the most complex.

The following block contains declarations for aliasing the following:

Let's see the code block; they let you:

typealias MyString = String
typealias Block = () -> Void
typealias TypedBlock<T, U> = (T) -> U
typealias ReturningBlock<U> = () -> U

We could have also defined Block in the function of ReturningBlock:

typealias Block = ReturningBlock<()>

You can also use type aliases for protocol compositions and complex types, as follows:

Let's see an example, as follows:

protocol SomeProtocol {}
protocol OtherProtocol {}

typealias ViewControllerProtocol = NSViewController & SomeProtocol
typealias BothProtocols = SomeProtocol & OtherProtocol

You will often find yourself using type aliases, in order to make your code more readable and more expressive. They are a powerful tool for hiding away some of the implementation complexity or verbosity when declaring long conformances. With type aliases, you can be encouraged to craft many protocols, each with a very small requirement list; then, you can compose all of those protocols when you need them, expressed as those types.

Generics is a complex subject, and would likely require a full book of its own, for extensive coverage extensively. For the purpose of this book, we'll provide a quick refresher on generics, covering the basics that are required to understand the constructions that we'll use in the different design patterns presented in the next chapters.

func concat<T>(a: T, b: T) -> [T] {
    return [a,b]
}

protocol Runnable {
    func run()
}

func run<T>(runnable: T) where T: Runnable {
    runnable.run()
}

struct ManyRunner<T>: Runnable where T: Runnable {
    let runnables: [T]
    func run() {
        runnables.forEach { $0.run() }
    }
}

struct Incrementer: Runnable {
    private(set) static var count = 0
    func run() {
        Incrementer.count += 1
    }
}

// This works
let runner = ManyRunner(runnables: [Incrementer(),Incrementer()])
runner.run()
assert(Incrementer.count == 2)
// runner is of type ManyRunner<Incrementer>



ManyRunner(runnables: [Incrementer(), Runners(runnables: [Incrementer()])] as [Runnable]).run()
// This produces the following compile error
// In argument type '[Runnable]', 'Runnable' does not conform to expected type 'Runnable'

protocol RunnableWithResult {
    associatedtype ResultType
    func run() -> ResultType
}

struct RunnersWithResult<T>: RunnableWithResult where T: RunnableWithResult {
    let runnables: [T]
    func run() -> [T.ResultType] {
        return runnables.map { $0.run() }
    }
}

struct IntRunnable {
    func run() -> Int { 
        return 0
    }
}

struct StringRunnable {
    func run() -> String {
        return "OK"
    }
}

let runnables: [RunnableWithResult] = [StringRunnable(), IntRunnable()]

Protocol 'RunnableWithResult' can only be used as a generic constraint because it has Self or associated type requirements