Swift - Protocol extensions - Property default values

Objective-C Associated Objects

You can use Objective-C associated objects to basically add a stored property to a class or protocol. Note that associated objects only work for class objects.

import ObjectiveC.runtime

protocol Identifiable: class {
    var id: Int { get set }
    var name: String { get set }
}

var IdentifiableIdKey   = "kIdentifiableIdKey"
var IdentifiableNameKey = "kIdentifiableNameKey"

extension Identifiable {
    var id: Int {
        get { 
            return (objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &IdentifiableIdKey) as? Int) ?? 0
        }
        set {
            objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &IdentifiableIdKey, newValue, .OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC)
        }   
    }

    var name: String {
        get { 
            return (objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &IdentifiableNameKey) as? String) ?? "default"
        }
        set {
            objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &IdentifiableNameKey, newValue, .OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC)
        }   
    }
}

Now you can make your class conform to Identifiable by simply writing

class A: Identifiable {

}

Test

var a = A()
print(a.id)    // 0
print(a.name)  // default
a.id = 5
a.name = "changed"
print(a.id)    // 5
print(a.name)  // changed

Protocols and protocol extensions are very powerful, but they tend to be most useful for read-only properties and functions.

for what you're trying to accomplish (stored properties with a default value), classes and inheritance might actually be the more elegant solution

something like:

class Identifiable {
    var id: Int = 0
    var name: String = "default"
}

class A:Identifiable {
}

class B:Identifiable {
}

let a = A()

print("\(a.id) \(a.name)")

a.id = 42
a.name = "foo"

print("\(a.id) \(a.name)")

It seems you want to add a stored property to a type via protocol extension. However this is not possible because with extensions you cannot add a stored property.

I can show you a couple of alternatives.

Subclassing (Object Oriented Programming)

The easiest way (as probably you already imagine) is using classes instead of structs.

class IdentifiableBase {
    var id = 0
    var name = "default"
}

class A: IdentifiableBase { }

let a = A()
a.name  = "test"
print(a.name) // test

Cons: In this case your A class needs to inherit from IdentifiableBase and since in Swift theres is not multiple inheritance this will be the only class A will be able to inherit from.

Components (Protocol Oriented Programming)

This technique is pretty popular in game development

struct IdentifiableComponent {
    var id = 0
    var name = "default"
}

protocol HasIdentifiableComponent {
    var identifiableComponent: IdentifiableComponent { get set }
}

protocol Identifiable: HasIdentifiableComponent { }

extension Identifiable {
    var id: Int {
        get { return identifiableComponent.id }
        set { identifiableComponent.id = newValue }
    }
    var name: String {
        get { return identifiableComponent.name }
        set { identifiableComponent.name = newValue }
    }
}

Now you can make your type conform to Identifiable simply writing

struct A: Identifiable {
    var identifiableComponent = IdentifiableComponent()
}

Test

var a = A()
a.identifiableComponent.name = "test"
print(a.identifiableComponent.name) // test