I've been trying to find the best way to implement a stored property in an extension, and came across this question: Swift extension stored properties alternative. However, I have not found a reason why in the discussion or anywhere else. Is there a reason why stored properties are not allowed in Swift? And if so, what is the reason?
Extensions are for extending the functionality of an existing class without changing the memory structure. It's more or less syntactic sugar. Imagine you could add stored properties and methods, what would it be? Nothing else but inheritance. So if you like to add new properties and methods just inherit from the class.
Related
Headline: description called by super.init()
This is a new take on an old question. As a primarily Swift programmer I tend to not use NSObject for class definitions because of the residual side effects of Objective-C. Like if I have a read-only property called length and I then want to create a setter function called setLength, I get warnings about it conflicting with a similar definition from Objective-C. I just discovered the set(var){} setter. If I subclass a Cacoa class like UIDocument, etc. that inherit from NSObject, I have to live with these side effects.
I have a class that uses two other classes in the property definitions, none of them NSObjects. This class has a description computed variable that uses the description computed variables for the other two classes in its composition. All three classes need to conform to the CustomStringConvertable protocol. Ok, everything is good.
At some point this class got upgraded to being a UIDocument and the CustomStringConvertable became redundant and was removed. Everything still works.
Here is what I found out today. I wanted to break at a point in the program where it was printing one of the two properties and as a convenience I set the break point in the description variable for that class, thinking that it should only be called at the point I am interested in, where it is printed out. What I discovered is that the description variable gets called during all the super.init() of the UIDocument sub-class! And there were a few of them. I think composing strings as being relatively expensive but didn't care because they were only used in debug, but with them being called and who knows how they are used in super.init(), I need to change this.
I checked another UIDocument class in the same program that has 200 files associated with it and it is also calling description in super.init().
Does anyone have any input on the Best Practices for using description vs debugDescription?
I'm going to answer my own question as a matter of documentation.
I switched the UIDocuments subclasses to define and use debugDescription. I am debugging some code that loads all the files and does some manipulation and I was able to reduce the load time from 9.8 seconds to 6.8 seconds.
I also went through all the places where the Swift 3 conversion added String(describing:) to the program and found I could change a lot of them to using debugDescription and eliminate the String(describing:) wrapper.
I think the best practice is to only define and use debugDescription and for my non-NSObjects change conformance from CustomStringConvertable to CustomDebugStringConvertable.
In c# we have the protected accessor which allows class members to be visible on inherited clases but not for the rest.
In Swift this doesn't exist so I wonder what's a correct approach for something like this:
I want to have a variable (internal behavior) and and a public method using this variable on a base class. This variable will be used also on inherited clases.
Options I see
Forget about base class and implement variable and methods everywhere I need it. WRONG, duplicated code
Implement inheritance by composition. I'd create a class containing common methods and this will be used by composition instead of inheritance. LESS WRONG but still repeating code that could be avoided with inheritance
Implement inheritance and make variable internal on base class. WRONG since exposes things without any justification except allowing visibility on inherited clases.
Implementation Details for Base Class
I want to have a NSOperationQueue instance and and a public method to cancel queued operations. I add new operations to this queue from inherited classes.
In Swift the correct answer is almost always protocols and extensions. It is almost never inheritance. Sometimes Cocoa stands in our way, because there are classes in Cocoa more often than protocols, but the goal is almost always protocols and extensions. Subclassing is our last choice.
Your particular case is confusing because NSOperationQueue already has a public method to cancel queued operations (cancelAllOperations). If you want to protect the queue from outside access (prevent callers from using addOperation directly for instance), then you should put the queue inside another type (i.e. composition), and forward what you want to the queue. More details on the specific problem you're solving would allow us to help suggest other Swift-like solutions.
If in the end you need something that looks like protected or friend, the correct solution is private. Put your subclass or your friend in the same file with the target, and mark the private thing private. Alternately, put the things that need to work together in a framework, and mark the attribute internal. The Swift Blog provides a good explanation of why this is an intentional choice.
I have use the type dynamic, a new type in .NET 4.0.
I want to use a dynamic type because I want to use some types that in advance I don't know what type is, but I know that all this possible type has some common methods.
In my case, I am using self tracking entities in entity framework 4.0, and I know that all the entities has the methods markedXXX (to set the state of the entity).
Through the dynamic object that I created, I can access and set the properties of one of this entities, but when I try to execute the MarkedAsXXX method I get an exception that says that the object has not definied the method.
I would like to know how to access to this methods. Is it possible?
Because I have a function that can access to the original values and set this values to the current one, but I need to set the entity as Unchenged.
Thanks.
I want to use a dynamic type because I want to use some types that in advance I don't know what type is, but I know that all this possible type has some common methods.
That suggests you should create an interface with those common methods, and make all the relevant types implement the interface.
Through the dynamic object that I created, I can access and set the properties of one of this entities, but when I try to execute the MarkedAsXXX method I get an exception that says that the object has not defined the method.
It's possible that this is due to explicit interface implementation. If the types have those methods declared as public methods in the normal way, it should be fine.
If you really want to use dynamic typing with these types, is there some base interface which declares the MarkedAsXXX methods, which you could cast the objects to before calling those methods? (I'm not familiar with the entity framework, so I don't know the details of those methods.)
Basically, I would try to avoid dynamic typing unless you really need it, partly because of edge cases like this - but if explicit interface implementation is the cause, then casting to that interface should be fine.
If you define an interface to the dynamically generated classes you can call the methods without the hassle of reflection calling.
Similar question but not quite the same thing
I was thinking that with extension methods in the same namespace as the interface you could get a similar effect to multiple inheritance in that you don't need to have duplicate code implementing the same interface the same way in 10 different classes.
What are some of the downsides of doing this? I think the pros are pretty obvious, it's the cons that usually come back to bite you later on.
One of the cons I see is that the extension methods can't be virtual, so you need to be sure that you actually do want them implemented the same way for every instance.
The problem that I see with building interface capability via extension methods is that you are no longer actually implementing the interface and so can't use the object as the interface type.
Say I have a method that takes an object of type IBar. If I implement the IBar interface on class Foo via extension methods, then Foo doesn't derive from IBar and can't be used interchangeably with it (Liskov Substitution principle). Sure, I get the behavior that I want added to Foo, but I lose the most important aspect of creating interfaces in the first place -- being able to define an abstract contract that can be implemented in a variety of ways by various classes so that dependent classes need not know about concrete implementations.
If I needed multiple inheritance (and so far I've lived without it) badly enough, I think I'd use composition instead to minimize the amount of code duplication.
A decent way to think about this is that instance methods are something done by the object, while extension methods are something done to the object. I am fairly certain the Framework Design Guidelines say you should implement an instance method whenever possible.
An interface declares "I care about using this functionality, but not how it is accomplished." That leaves implementers the freedom to choose the how. It decouples the intent, a public API, from the mechanism, a class with concrete code.
As this is the main benefit of interfaces, implementing them entirely as extension methods seems to defeat their purpose. Even IEnumerable<T> has an instance method.
Edit: Also, objects are meant to act on the data they contain. Extension methods can only see an object's public API (as they are just static methods); you would have to expose all of an object's state to make it work (an OO no-no).
This question already has answers here:
Closed 13 years ago.
Extension methods are really interesting for what they do, but I don't feel 100% confortable with the idea of creating a "class member" outside the class.
I prefer to avoid this practice as much as I can, but sometimes it looks better to use extension methods.
Which situations you think are good practices of usage for this feature?
I think that best place for extension methods is "helper" methods or "shortcuts" that make existing API easier and cleanier by providing default values to arguments of existing methods or hiding repeating chains of method calls.
Contrary to the common beliefs that you can "extend" classes for which you do not have access to the source code, you cannot. You have no access to private methods and objects, all you can do is to polish public API and bend it to your likings (not recommended).
They're great for interfaces (where you can add "composite" behaviour which only uses existing methods on the interface) - LINQ to Objects is the prime example of this.
They're also useful for creating fluent interfaces without impacting on the types that are being used. My favourite example is probably inappropriate for production code, but handy for unit tests:
DateTime birthday = 19.June(1976) + 8.Hours();
Basically anywhere that you don't want to or can't add behaviour to the type itself, but you want to make it easier to use the type, extension methods are worth considering. If you find yourself writing a bunch of static methods to do with a particular type, think about whether extension methods wouldn't make the calls to those methods look nicer.
When the class is not extensible and you don't have control over the source code. Or if it is extensible, but you prefere to be able to use the existing type instead of your own type. I would only do the latter if the extension doesn't change the character of the class, but merely supplies (IMO) missing functionality.
In my opinion, extension methods are useful to enhance the readability and thus maintainability of code. They seem to be be best on entities where either you have no access to the original class, or where the method breaks "Single Responsibility Principle" of the original class. An example of the latter we have here is DSLs. The DSL models are extended with extension methods are used to make T4 templating easier but no methods are added the model unless they are specifically related to the model.
The ideal use for them is when you have an interface that will be implemented in many places, so you don't want to put a huge burden on implementors, but you want the interface to be convenient to use from the caller's perspective as well.
So you put the "helpers" into a set of extension methods, leaving the interface itself nice and lean.
interface IZoomable
{
double ZoomLevel { get; set; }
}
public static void SetDefaultZoom(this IZoomable z)
{
z.ZoomLevel = 100;
}
Extension methods are a great way to add functionality to classes that you don't own (no source), are in the framework or that you don't want to inherit for whatever reason.
I like them, but you are right. They should be used judiciously.