How can I call a static function on a protocol in a generic way? - swift

Question

Is there a point to declaring a static function on a protocol? The client using the protocol has to call the function on a type conforming to the protocol anyway right? That breaks the idea of not having to know the type conforming to the protocol IMO. Is there a way to call the static function on the protocol in a way where I don't have to know the actual type conforming to my protocol?

Answer 1

Nice question. Here is my humble point of view:
Is there a point to declaring a static function on a protocol?
Pretty much the same as having instance methods declared in a protocol.
The client using the protocol has to call the function on a type conforming to the protocol anyway right?
Yes, exactly like instance functions.
That breaks the idea of not having to know the type conforming to the protocol IMO.
Nope. Look at the following code:
protocol Feline {
var name: String { get }
static func createRandomFeline() -> Feline
init()
}
extension Feline {
static func createRandomFeline() -> Feline {
return arc4random_uniform(2) > 0 ? Tiger() : Leopard()
}
}
class Tiger: Feline {
let name = "Tiger"
required init() {}
}
class Leopard: Feline {
let name = "Leopard"
required init() {}
}
let feline: Feline = arc4random_uniform(2) > 0 ? Tiger() : Leopard()
let anotherFeline = feline.dynamicType.createRandomFeline()
I don't know the real type inside the variable feline. I just know that it does conform to Feline. However I am invoking a static protocol method.
Is there a better way to do this?
I see, you would like to call a static method/function declared in a protocol without creating a value that conforms to the protocol.
Something like this:
Feline.createRandomFeline() // DANGER: compiler is not happy now
Honestly I don't know the reason why this is not possible.

Answer 2

yes this is possible:
Swift 3
protocol Thing {
static func genericFunction()
}
//... in another file
var things:[Thing] = []
for thing in things {
type(of: thing).genericFunction()
}

Answer 3

Thank you #appzYourLife for the help! Your answer inspired my answer.
#appzYourLife answered my question. I had an underlying issue I was trying to resolve and the following code resolves my issue, so I'll post this here, maybe it helps someone with my same underlying question:
protocol MyProtocol {
static func aStaticFunc()
}
class SomeClassThatUsesMyProtocolButDoesntConformToIt {
var myProtocolType: MyProtocol.Type
init(protocolType: MyProtocol.Type) {
myProtocolType = protocolType
}
func aFunction() {
myProtocolType.aStaticFunc()
}
}

Answer 4

I created another solution for this case. IMHO this is quite clean and simple.
First, create a protocol for accessing instance type.
protocol TypeAccessible {
func type() -> Self.Type
}
extension TypeAccessible {
func type() -> Self.Type {
return Swift.type(of: self)
}
}
then create your concrete class as here. The point is your protocol should conform to TypeAccessible protocol.
protocol FooProtocol: TypeAccessible {
static func bar()
}
class Foo: FooProtocol {
static func bar() { }
}
On call site use it as
let instance: FooProtocol = Foo()
instance.type().bar()
For further use cases, just make sure your protocols conform to TypeAccessible and that's all.

Answer 5

A little late to the party on this one.
Here's my solution for "adding" static properties/functions/types to a protocol using typealias.
For example:
enum PropertyScope {
case all
case none
}
struct PropertyNotifications {
static var propertyDidChange =
Notification.Name("propertyDidChangeNotification")
}
protocol Property {
typealias Scope = PropertyScope
typealias Notifications = PropertyNotifications
var scope: Scope { get set }
}
Then you can do this anywhere in your code:
func postNotification() {
let scope: Property.Scope = .all
NotificationCenter.post(name: Property.Notifications.propertyDidChange,
object: scope)
}

Answer 6

Using protocols like Java interfaces is rarely a good idea. They are meta types, meant for defining contracts, which is an entirely different kind of thing.
That being said, just for the point of understanding, I find the most simple and effective way for creating the equivalent of a static factory method of a protocol to write a free function.
It should contain the protocol's name, hoping that that will prevent name clashes, and improve discoverability.
In other languages, createP would be a static member of P, named create and be called as P.create(...), which would drastically improve discoverability and guarantee to prevent name clashes.
In swift, though, this is not an option for protocols, so if protocols are for some reason really actually used as a replacement for interfaces, at least including the protocol's name in the function's name is an ugly workaround that's still slightly better than nothing.
P.S. in case the goal is actually to achieve something like an inheritance hierarchy with structs, union style enums are the tool that's meant to serve that purpose :)
protocol P
{
var x: Int { get }
}
func createP() -> P
{
if (todayIsMonday())
{
return A()
}
else
{
return B()
}
}
class A: P
{
var x = 5
}
class B: P
{
var x = 7
}

Answer 7

This isn't an answer so much as it is an extension to the question. Say I have:
#objc public protocol InteractivelyNameable: Nameable {
static func alertViewForNaming(completion:#escaping((_ success: Bool, _ didCancel: Bool, _ error: Error?) -> Void)) -> UIAlertController?
}
And I have a generic view controller that manages various types (generic type is .fetchableObjectType... basically NSFetchResult). I need to check if a specific object type conforms to the protocol, and if so, invoke it.
something like:
// valid swift code
if self.dataSource.fetchableObjectType is InteractivelyNameable {
// not valid swift code
if let alert = (self.dataSource.fetchableObjectType as InteractivelyNameable).alertViewForNaming(....)
}

Answer 8

I had a situation where I need to create same DomainModel object from 2 different response. so this (static method in protocol helped me) approach helped me.
protocol BaseResponseKeyList: CodingKey {
static func getNameKey()->Self
}
enum FirstResponseKeyList: String, BaseResponseKeyList {
case name
func getNameKey()->FirstResponseKeyList {
return .name
}
}
enum SecondResponseKeyList: String, BaseResponseKeyList {
case userName
func getNameKey()->SecondResponseKeyList {
return .userName
}
}
struct MyDomainModel<T:BaseResponseKeyList> : Decodable {
var name:String?
required init(from d:Decoder) {
do {
let container = try d.container(keyedBy:T.self)
name = try container.decode(String.self, forKey:T.getNameKey())
}catch(_) {
print("error")
}
}
}
let myDomainModel = try JSONDecoder().decode(MyDomainModel <FirstResponseKeyList>.self, from: data)
let myDomainModel2 = try JSONDecoder().decode(MyDomainModel <SecondResponseKeyList>.self, from: data2)