Change the value that is being set in variable's willSet block - swift

Question

I'm trying to sort the array that is being set before setting it but the argument of willSet is immutable and sort mutates the value. How can I overcome this limit?
var files:[File]! = [File]() {
willSet(newFiles) {
newFiles.sort { (a:File, b:File) -> Bool in
return a.created_at > b.created_at
}
}
}
To put this question out of my own project context, I made this gist:
class Person {
var name:String!
var age:Int!
init(name:String, age:Int) {
self.name = name
self.age = age
}
}
let scott = Person(name: "Scott", age: 28)
let will = Person(name: "Will", age: 27)
let john = Person(name: "John", age: 32)
let noah = Person(name: "Noah", age: 15)
var sample = [scott,will,john,noah]
var people:[Person] = [Person]() {
willSet(newPeople) {
newPeople.sort({ (a:Person, b:Person) -> Bool in
return a.age > b.age
})
}
}
people = sample
people[0]
I get the error stating that newPeople is not mutable and sort is trying to mutate it.

Answer 1

It's not possible to mutate the value inside willSet. If you implement a willSet observer, it is passed the new property value as a constant parameter.
What about modifying it to use didSet?
var people:[Person] = [Person]()
{
didSet
{
people.sort({ (a:Person, b:Person) -> Bool in
return a.age > b.age
})
}
}
willSet is called just before the value is stored.
didSet is called immediately after the new value is stored.
You can read more about property observers here
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Swift/Conceptual/Swift_Programming_Language/Properties.html
You can also write a custom getter and setter like below. But didSet seems more convenient.
var _people = [Person]()
var people: [Person] {
get {
return _people
}
set(newPeople) {
_people = newPeople.sorted({ (a:Person, b:Person) -> Bool in
return a.age > b.age
})
}
}

Answer 2

It is not possible to change value types (including arrays) before they are set inside of willSet. You will need to instead use a computed property and backing storage like so:
var _people = [Person]()
var people: [Person] {
get {
return _people
}
set(newPeople) {
_people = newPeople.sorted { $0.age > $1.age }
}
}

Answer 3

Another solution for people who like abstracting away behavior like this (especially those who are used to features like C#'s custom attributes) is to use a Property Wrapper, available since Swift 5.1 (Xcode 11.0).
First, create a new property wrapper struct that can sort Comparable elements:
#propertyWrapper
public struct Sorting<V : MutableCollection & RandomAccessCollection>
where V.Element : Comparable
{
var value: V
public init(wrappedValue: V) {
value = wrappedValue
value.sort()
}
public var wrappedValue: V {
get { value }
set {
value = newValue
value.sort()
}
}
}
and then assuming you implement Comparable-conformance for Person:
extension Person : Comparable {
static func < (lhs: Person, rhs: Person) -> Bool {
lhs.age < lhs.age
}
static func == (lhs: Person, rhs: Person) -> Bool {
lhs.age == lhs.age
}
}
you can declare your property like this and it will be auto-sorted on init or set:
struct SomeStructOrClass
{
#Sorting var people: [Person]
}
// … (given `someStructOrClass` is an instance of `SomeStructOrClass`)
someStructOrClass.people = sample
let oldestPerson = someStructOrClass.people.last
Caveat: Property wrappers are not allowed (as of time of writing, Swift 5.7.1) in top-level code— they need to be applied to a property var in a struct, class, or enum.
To more literally follow your sample code, you could easily also create a ReverseSorting property wrapper:
#propertyWrapper
public struct ReverseSorting<V : MutableCollection & RandomAccessCollection & BidirectionalCollection>
where V.Element : Comparable
{
// Implementation is almost the same, except you'll want to also call `value.reverse()`:
// value = …
// value.sort()
// value.reverse()
}
and then the oldest person will be at the first element:
// …
#Sorting var people: [Person]
// …
someStructOrClass.people = sample
let oldestPerson = someStructOrClass.people[0]
And even more directly, if your use-case demands using a comparison closure via sort(by:…) instead of implementing Comparable conformance, you can do that to:
#propertyWrapper
public struct SortingBy<V : MutableCollection & RandomAccessCollection>
{
var value: V
private var _areInIncreasingOrder: (V.Element, V.Element) -> Bool
public init(wrappedValue: V, by areInIncreasingOrder: #escaping (V.Element, V.Element) -> Bool) {
_areInIncreasingOrder = areInIncreasingOrder
value = wrappedValue
value.sort(by: _areInIncreasingOrder)
}
public var wrappedValue: V {
get { value }
set {
value = newValue
value.sort(by: _areInIncreasingOrder)
}
}
}
// …
#SortingBy(by: { a, b in a.age > b.age }) var people: [Person] = []
// …
someStructOrClass.people = sample
let oldestPerson = someStructOrClass.people[0]
Caveat: The way SortingBy's init currently works, you'll need to specify an initial value ([]). You can remove this requirement with an additional init (see Swift docs), but that approach is much less complicated when your property wrapper works on a concrete type (e.g. if you wrote a non-generic PersonArraySortingBy property wrapper), as opposed to a generic-on-protocols property wrapper.