Can I add associated object to Swift Struct? - swift

Question

I would like to add an additional property to the Swift String. I used this approach few times on objects, but it seems that it does not work on struct. Although, I don't get any error...
This is what I tried:
var str = "Hello, StackOverflow"
fileprivate struct AssociatedKeys {
static var myBool = "myBool"
}
extension String {
public var myBool: Bool {
get {
guard let myBoolObject = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &AssociatedKeys.myBool) as? NSNumber else {
return false
}
return myBoolObject.boolValue // execution never reaches this line
}
set(value) {
let object = NSNumber(value: value)
objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &AssociatedKeys.myBool, object, objc_AssociationPolicy.OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC)
}
}
}
str.myBool = true
print(str.myBool) // prints "false"
It prints out that it is false.
At first, I tried it without wrapping the Bool into NSNumber, but the result was the same.
Is this even possible to add an associated object to a struct at all? If not, can anyone tell me why?

Answer 1

Based on #Hamish's comment, I created the following solution to workaround the issue.
Preconditions:
Have a framework which proposes prefilled objects, the app works on these objects and the framework should know which of the properties are modified during the processing of this object later.
Not using looooong initializers to setup all properties of MyObject is a design decision.
In my example, the usage of the myObject is a dummy and shows what happens in the framework and what happens in the app.
// protocol is used, as we could handle more modifiable structs/classes in a common way
protocol PropertyState {
var isModified: Bool {get set}
}
internal struct ModifiableString : PropertyState {
var string: String
var isModified: Bool
}
class MyObject: PropertyState {
internal var _name = ModifiableString(string: "", isModified: false)
public var name: String {
get {
return _name.string
}
set(value) {
_name.string = value
_name.isModified = true
}
}
// + N similar properties (they can be other types than String, by implementing other structs, like ModifiableBool)
var isModified: Bool {
get {
return _name.isModified // || _myAnotherProperty.isModified
}
set(value) {
_name.isModified = value
// _myAnotherProperty.isModified = value
}
}
}
// internal filling of the object inside of the framework
let myObject = MyObject()
myObject.name = "originalValue"
print(myObject.isModified) // true
// filling the object with values ended, so we can set the state
myObject.isModified = false
print(myObject.isModified) // false
// the app can work with the object
// let myObject = Framework.getObject()
myObject.name = "modifiedValue"
// now the framework should now which properties are modified
print(myObject._name.isModified) // true