Mutating property by its name - swift

Question

With the help of Reflection API I'm getting the properties list for my types.
func inspectedProperties(ignored: [String] = []) -> [Property] {
var properties = [String]()
for child in self.children() {
guard let label = child.label else {
continue
}
properties += [label]
}
return properties.filter { !ignored.contains($0) }
}
This function returns me the names for all properties.
Now I want to mutate a certain property just by knowing its name.
class Fruit {
private dynamic var name = "Apple"
}
If I call Fruit().inspectedProperties() I'll get the following array ["name"].
But is it possible to mutate the variable named "name"?

Answer 1

OK, I found a very simple solution but it is not flexible. Actually, you can use KVO to mutate your data types. For this purpose your models should be subclasses of NSObject to enable KVO features and variables marked as dynamic.
P.S.
typealias Property = String
class Fruit: NSObject {
private dynamic var name = "Apple"
}
Then there is the mutating function.
func mutateProperty<T>(property: Property) -> T -> () {
return { value in
let filtered = self.children().filter { label, value in
if let label = label where label == property {
return true
}
return false
}
guard let child = filtered.first else {
return
}
if let object = self as? NSObject where child.value is T {
object.setValue(value as? AnyObject, forKey: property)
}
}
}
Then try out:
let fruit = Fruit()
fruit.mutateProperty("name")("Google")
print(fruit.name) // "Google"
It works, but if you want to work with value types rather than with reference ones it won't work. There might be some low level solution but I'm not familiar with one. If anyone knows how to, please leave your answer here! :)