Alternate approach to inheritance for Swift structs?

Question

I'm using structs instead of classes to store data in my iOS app because of the obvious advantage of value vs reference types. However, I'm trying to figure out how to architect groups of similar content. User posts may consist of images, text, and/or titles. If I were using classes the approach I would use is having a common Post superclass with different subclasses representing different types of posts. That way I could pass Post data around and cast as needed. However, structs don't allow for inheritance, so how could I architect something similar?

Solution 1

In Swift with struct you can create protocol for common task and also implement default implementation using protocol extension.

protocol Vehicle {
    var model: String { get set }
    var color: String { get set }
}

//Common Implementation using protocol extension
extension Vehicle {

    static func parseVehicleFields(jsonDict: [String:Any]) -> (String, String) {
        let model = jsonDict["model"] as! String
        let color = jsonDict["color"] as! String
        return (model, color)
    }
}

struct Car : Vehicle {
    var model:String
    var color:String
    let horsepower: Double
    let license_plate: String
    init(jsonDict: [String:Any]) {
        (model, color) = Car.parseVehicleFields(jsonDict: jsonDict)
        horsepower = jsonDict["horsepower"] as! Double
        license_plate = jsonDict["license_plate"] as! String
    }
}

struct Bicycle : Vehicle {
    var model:String
    var color:String
    let chainrings: Int
    let sprockets: Int
    init(jsonDict: [String:Any]) {
        (model, color) = Bicycle.parseVehicleFields(jsonDict: jsonDict)
        chainrings = jsonDict["chainrings"] as! Int
        sprockets = jsonDict["sprockets"] as! Int
    }
}

Solution 2

There is a detailed answer at following Gist, with all possible approaches. I do not like any of them as I am fan of Classes. But structs are future of Swift, you have to understand, adopt and like :( it .

Link: https://gist.github.com/AliSoftware/9e4946c8b6038572d678